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Teaching students non-STEM stuff isn’t indoctrination by teachers into those teachers personal political and philosophical views. Do you seriously think that’s

Teaching students non-STEM stuff isn’t indoctrination by teachers into those teachers personal political and philosophical views. Do you seriously think that’s what goes on? I did music, foreign languages, philosophy, art, business studies in a public high school in Australia. These subjects, obviously, had a state wide curriculum. I was not indoctrinated by my teachers.

rayiner 7y ago
That’s exactly what the article describes as going on: > No, the purpose of education in a democracy ought to be to prepare children for their role as citizens and that means that they learn to think for themselves, that they ask a lot of questions, that they question authority, that they stand up for what they believe in, and that they understand that their contribution to the world cannot be measured in money. This is indoctrination into a specific value system.[1] None of this is necessary to teach kids math or writing, logical analysis, data analysis, or even the functioning of our government. [1] As an Asian immigrant, it’s also largely not the value system I want to teach my kids. I’d rather have kids learn to respect authority, to respect the wishes and preferences of the majority of people around them, to be very considerate of how their actions affect others, to keep their heads down and work hard, to fully understand why things are the way they are before advocating for change, and that their function as people is to contribute to economy and thus the society and get a well paying job so they can support their own families. I strongly suspect that for most Americans, or at least a large swath of Americans, the values they want to teach their kids hew closer to the above than “question authority.”
- thundergolfer 7y ago
  > Indoctrination (noun) - the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. I understand what you're saying about conflicting value systems, but you're flat-out wrong that what the author describes is indoctrination. The key word from the definition is "uncritically". Here's the key part of what you've quoted: > they learn to think for themselves, that they ask a lot of questions, that they question authority, All that is the opposite of "accepting uncritically".

rayiner 7y ago

That’s exactly what the article describes as going on: > No, the purpose of education in a democracy ought to be to prepare children for their role as citizens and that means that they learn to think for themselves, that they ask a lot of questions, that they question authority, that they stand up for what they believe in, and that they understand that their contribution to the world cannot be measured in money. This is indoctrination into a specific value system.[1] None of this is necessary to teach kids math or writing, logical analysis, data analysis, or even the functioning of our government. [1] As an Asian immigrant, it’s also largely not the value system I want to teach my kids. I’d rather have kids learn to respect authority, to respect the wishes and preferences of the majority of people around them, to be very considerate of how their actions affect others, to keep their heads down and work hard, to fully understand why things are the way they are before advocating for change, and that their function as people is to contribute to economy and thus the society and get a well paying job so they can support their own families. I strongly suspect that for most Americans, or at least a large swath of Americans, the values they want to teach their kids hew closer to the above than “question authority.”

thundergolfer 7y ago
> Indoctrination (noun) - the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. I understand what you're saying about conflicting value systems, but you're flat-out wrong that what the author describes is indoctrination. The key word from the definition is "uncritically". Here's the key part of what you've quoted: > they learn to think for themselves, that they ask a lot of questions, that they question authority, All that is the opposite of "accepting uncritically".