Education vs Indoctrination

Bismillah

Education: the knowledge and development resulting from the process of being educated.

Indoctrination : to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle.

Every now and then I’ll dedicate an entire day to just sitting at home watching some sort of lecture or various documentaries just to stimulate my brain. And one day several months ago I watching a lecture by a Dr. Jane Elliot(I believe that’s her name lol). But at some point in the lecture she went on to say explain how the American education system really wasn’t educating people at all! It was more of an indoctrination on how to be the perfect American.

Ranging from the “Pledge or Allegiance” to the what’s taught in our history books it’s all very stream lined from grades K-12. Now obviously it’s going to vary depending what region of the country you’re in. Especially in the realm of Black History…we’re taught about the same figures. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. so on and so forth unbeknownst to us our history begins literally when the first human took their breathe.

Now I liken the education system to how all Sailors new and old go to “Indoc” at various points in their career and in these course they’re systematically groomed into the “Perfect Sailor”. And it’s literally the exact same speech at every turn…”don’t touch anyone that doesn’t want to be touched” “don’t drink and drive” “if you see something, say something” etc etc. And it wasn’t until I watched this lecture that it dawned on me! There’s not one piece of empowerment in these courses…it’s a lot of “fall in line and you’ll be fine.”

Another thing I noticed is that every time you try and educate someone on something someone of a higher rank will usually try and cut it off before that seed gets planted. Now this isn’t the case with all higher ups…some encourage it because they understand that an empowered mind is far more powerful than someone who has succumbed to someone else’s will. I feel like the same principles should apply within the school system. I feel like if more students were empowered versus being imposed upon things would play out much differently and there’d be a genuine interest in what’s being taught.

In my opinion this imposition takes place solely out of fear! One group fearing that the next will realize their greatness and figure out that they’re not as inferior as the imposers want them to think they are. If I educate you…I’m empowering you to think for yourself I’m enabling you to use freedom of the mind! Whereas if I’m constantly beating my agenda into your head…I’m secretly hoping one day I’ll no longer have to do it and you’ll subconsciously do what I want you to do without me moving a muscle.