There are some who argue that education is virtually always synonymous with indoctrination, and those who hold this position certainly have evidence to support it. The U.S. government removed native children from their homes, put them in boarding schools, forbade them from speaking their own languages, and indoctrinated them with very specific values and beliefs. These practices continue today with children from indigenous families around the world who lose their languages and cultures as they head off to boarding schools that aim to help prepare them for a very different future than village living. The Dairy Council has been producing “educational materials” for schools and indoctrinating several generations with the belief that we need dairy products for our health, which is patently false. Corporations in general utilize schools to indoctrinate students and influence them to prefer their products over others and to become productive workers within a global, corporate culture.
But this does not mean that education is by its very nature indoctrination. We mustn’t confuse education with schooling, because they are not synonymous. Education happens all the time, through interactions, mentoring, reading, apprenticeships, observation, and simply living. Of course it also happens in school where specific subjects are taught and we gain new skills and knowledge. Schools can be places where indoctrination takes place in a wholesale fashion, as when it serves a specific ideology and seeks to produce graduates who have specific beliefs, rather than simply a breadth of knowledge and skills. And schools can also be places where indoctrination is subtle but still pervasive. But schools do not have to be places of indoctrination. Certainly, we are all enculturated in school, but this is not the same.
The definition of indoctrinate is this:
in·doc·tri·nate vt
to teach somebody a belief, doctrine, or ideology thoroughly and systematically, especially with the goal of discouraging independent thought or the acceptance of other opinions
School can and should be one of the very best places to encourage independent thought, critical and creative thinking, and broad understanding of and appreciation for a multitude of perspectives. I believe that we need to be developing and promoting schools that are committed wholeheartedly to exposing students to a variety of viewpoints and providing them with the most important tools for their future: problem-solving, and critical and creative thinking, along with a deep commitment to living lives that contribute to a healthy world.
Zoe Weil
President, Institute for Humane Education
Well said!
Still, I’d say that so long as the school makes adults responsible for children’s education, some ideology or another is bound to leak in, even unconsciously.
The best way to encourage independent, critical and creative thought it to avoid making adults into the ultimate authority and source of knowledge. Acknowledge they are just people with opinions who like all humans make mistakes at times, let the children drive their own education, and indoctrination will find no home in your school.
I’m ambivalent about children being completely responsible for driving their own education. Much depends on the child. Not every child would thrive in a Summerhill environment or unschooling. Some do best with the structure of Waldorf; others with the the freedom of Montessori. In every species where there are years of child-rearing, the adults “teach” the young; ours is much more systematic and complex, but there is a reason to impart certain knowledge to youth, and I don’t think children have the experience or wisdom to necessarily pursue all the knowledge they will need. Adults don’t need to be the ultimate source of knowledge to recognize that with age and experience comes – hopefully! – wisdom. I also think that indoctrination could happen among kids who drove their own education if a group of powerful, influential teens developed or adopted an ideology that became powerful in a particular setting. Still, I appreciate this perspective, and I’m glad you voiced it! Thank you!
In my experience, and in the collective experience of Sudbury schools everywhere, children are naturally very adept at getting to the knowledge they need when they are entrusted with doing so and given the time and space to do it. And they get better at it by being allowed to, and responsible for, doing it.
As for a group of teens driving indoctrination, I see how that can be a problem in theory, but I’ve never heard of such a thing happening in such a school. The atmosphere of free discussion and the fact people have time to have deep discussions are usually a good antidote for that kind of thing, and don’t let it happen in the first place. In my experience teenagers are busier arguing with one another than weaving closed belief systems. And the adults being simply individuals with their opinions (and eloquence) are in a very good position to have honest discussions with students if such a situation should arise; they tend to be highly respected for their experience and insight rather than feared as authority figures, and most students will have a staff member or two with whom they are close and talk very honestly about things.
Besides, it seems to me far likelier for indoctrination to take place when you actually put someone in the position of being officially the source of knowledge than when you don’t. What you describe is still just a possibility, and not a systemic danger like the power teachers have to indoctrinate.
All that said, I still agree with your post. I just think having teachers in the traditional sense is very problematic. But if you’re going to have teachers, it’s a very good thing for them to work against indoctrination rather than drive it. I’m glad to see that much put in writing! 🙂
Thanks for the great ideas on this blog. I’m excited to follow the conversation here in the next few months! I think it parallels many of the conversations we hope to be having at http://www.radicallearners.com. Thanks!
Just visited your site! It’s great! Glad to know about it!
Jim, So glad you are here! I encourage everyone to get over to Jim’s blog, and I’ve asked him to guest blog here. Jim? Hope you can.
Zoe, in my new book I am working with the ideas of hospitality, cosmopolitanism and the creation of works of beauty as the new story for schooling. In the marvelous post (below), by a professor at the University of Wisconsin who grew up, “a malnourished child in a one-room school in war-torn China,” the author describes how he received a cosmopolitan education, and its necessity in our new world.
http://chronicle.com/article/A-New-Cosmopolitanism/124131
I think this is exactly what you are talking about?
I love this article Kirsten! Thanks so much for sharing it with me!
Hi Zoe,
Are you familiar with the film, “Schooling the World–The White Man’s Last Burden?” It speaks to the issues you describe at the beginning of your post. The film was made by a neighbor of mine and she screened it at the AERO conference in June.
Jen
Yes. Our staff watched it after Khalif brought it back from AERO, and it prompted my thinking on this.