Indoctrination: is it right or wrong?

[Smart_Guy]

Hello guys.

First off, I understand that indoctrination is feeding teachings, namely religious, to children while they are growing up living with their guardians.

According to that definition, do you see it is right or wrong?

I say it is right by default and place, as guardians are the ones responsible in upbringing children and they teach them what they see right for their future. Exceptions are always their, but please don't use that as an excuse here in your assessment. My threads always go within the norms and standards; the default position.

 

[interminable]

Children whether want or not will be effected by their parents.
They think they are their role models.

The best thing is to teach them indirectly especially about religion without any force. After reaching the age of puberty they can decide for themselves.
Even Muslims should prepare a good situation for their children to lead them into salvation without force but finally children will decide

 

[lovesong]

I see no problem with teaching your child what you believe, but we live in a diverse world and I think it's wrong to not allow your child to explore what's out there and choose what is right for them. Trying to force a belief down someone's throat when it isn't what they want is rude at best, and parents who are overly strict about not letting their children think for themselves can cause depression and fear in their kids as well as risking a family break up when they grow up and move away.

 

[Jumi]

Indoctrination is not only religious, there are non-religious indoctrinations as well which can be just as good or bad as religious ones. Strict indoctrination tries to ensure your kids don't grow up to use their full faculties of mind or to be different than your ideals. They will lack understanding of other worldviews and find conflict within themselves and with other people to their own detriment.

I personally think children should be taught to love life in honorable way that respects other people and also love of truth in a way that they can surpass their parents in their natural talents.

 

[Altfish]

I've indoctrinated my children with an ability to think for themselves.
Neither are religious, my biggest worry was when my son (for a short time only, he soon saw the light) started to support another football team.

 

[Kirran]

Rather than doctrine, I think it's inculcating a child with identities which is the problem. Taking the assumption right from the word go that a child is a whole bunch of social constructs they'll come to identify with is I think a problem, although it is a ubiquitous one. These include gender, nationality, religious identity, class, ethnicity...

 

[LuisDantas]

Hello guys.

First off, I understand that indoctrination is feeding teachings, namely religious, to children while they are growing up living with their guardians.

According to that definition, do you see it is right or wrong?

It will depend a lot on how prepared one is to accept disagreements.

Very often indoctrination is indeed abusive, if not outright criminal.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Education, yes. Indoctrination, no.

 

[Deathbydefault]

First off, I understand that indoctrination is feeding teachings, namely religious, to children while they are growing up living with their guardians.

According to that definition, do you see it is right or wrong?

Depends on how it's being utilized.

If you are forcing your beliefs on a child to progress whatever movement you are a part of, that's probably wrong.
If you are installing a belief concerning common ethics and morality, that's probably right.

If you are raising a kid to like country music more than other types of music, I can't say that I really care.

I say it is right by default and place, as guardians are the ones responsible in upbringing children and they teach them what they see right for their future. Exceptions are always their, but please don't use that as an excuse here in your assessment and poll voting. My threads always go within the norms and standards; the default position.

Depends entirely on the guardian, adults themselves are not always mature enough or responsible enough to be educating a child. I completely agree with your first sentence, so long as the guardian is a decent adult that can operate within society successfully and responsibly.

 

[buddhist]

Hello guys.

First off, I understand that indoctrination is feeding teachings, namely religious, to children while they are growing up living with their guardians.

According to that definition, do you see it is right or wrong?

I say it is right by default and place, as guardians are the ones responsible in upbringing children and they teach them what they see right for their future. Exceptions are always their, but please don't use that as an excuse here in your assessment and poll voting. My threads always go within the norms and standards; the default position.

The only indoctrination I support would be to stress the importance of personal questioning, personal analysis, and personal knowledge. One of the prime qualities of children is their ability to ask "why is this so?", but those older than them often - criminally, IMO - suppress their natural talent for inquiry.

 

[Sunstone]

Indoctrination --- as the term is most commonly used -- is more than merely teaching a kid some doctrine. It's teaching him or her never to question a preferred doctrine. This is evil.

 

[Janet Waters]

Hello guys.

First off, I understand that indoctrination is feeding teachings, namely religious, to children while they are growing up living with their guardians.

According to that definition, do you see it is right or wrong?

I say it is right by default and place, as guardians are the ones responsible in upbringing children and they teach them what they see right for their future. Exceptions are always their, but please don't use that as an excuse here in your assessment. My threads always go within the norms and standards; the default position.

INDOCTRINATION is a terrible word. However, I'm sure you didn't Intend to use that term as a negative.

I understand INDOCTRINATION to be a form of political propaganda (no matter what institution is being politicized). It is used to LIMIT a person's understanding and therefore manipulate a different outcome. It is an act of BEGUILEMENT.....to accomplish a nefarious agenda...one that is neither useful to the mind nor the heart of man.

INDOCTRINATION is the act of leading a person astray by trickery. It is a tactic that is used to trick a person into make choices (that do not serve their best interests) and that which they would not have made, had they been allowed the truth of the matter. It is anti-truth and anti-freedom based.

 

[Sha'irullah]

I see it as wrong because of what religions do. They do not offer moral guidance or give man a capability of understanding the world just manipulating how he responds or values it. If a man believes that Heaven/Jannah is within his grasp he will surely attain it even if violence may be done.

A child should be handed ethics and responsibility at his age not religious dogma. No matter the child, he or she will not grow to appreciate anything taught by the parents if it is instigated through coercion. But religion as understood archaically had to be passed down in order to form a homogenous society that could adapt internally. It was a necessity back then and was a cultural marker for the community or the state.

With urbanization there came a need for unifying principles and values amongst people and religion became the perfect tool for this. It spreads the culture and promotes the people of that culture. This is why Muslims desire the Kalifa and Christians have a yearning for Christendom.

 

[Sunstone]

Indoctrination is a word for education you don't like.

Maybe that's one meaning of the term. But whether you yourself like it or not, it's also a word for teaching someone never to question a specific doctrine.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Hello guys.

First off, I understand that indoctrination is feeding teachings, namely religious, to children while they are growing up living with their guardians.

According to that definition, do you see it is right or wrong?

I say it is right by default and place, as guardians are the ones responsible in upbringing children and they teach them what they see right for their future. Exceptions are always their, but please don't use that as an excuse here in your assessment and poll voting. My threads always go within the norms and standards; the default position.

I feel its right or moral for parents to teach their children the truths and beliefs the parents uphold. Its the same as whether one should take a shower before bed or when they wake in the morning. Norms are usually given to children from the reflection of their parents.

I do see two sides of the coin. If the indocrination is healthy and a parent teaches all people have sinful nature, that harms no one. It just means that the child sees will try to help himself be like god by helping others and self. On the oher side, if its taught we have no sinful nature, the motivation is to restrain oneself from going to a "sinful" state that conflicts with their true nature absent of inherited sin.

If a parent teaches a child that god created the world and evolution doesnt exist thats no different than my mother teaching me spirits exist and we are not alone on the planet. The belief harms no one. If the child decides to evangalize and tell others they are wrong, thats a problem. Espressing different beliefs according to how one is raised is not.

I am all for having a child be free to choose his religion. I was never unhealthly indoctrinates by religion, so with that I am lucky. I do find it benefitial to give a child a foundation of what their parent feels is right. Just let the young adult (not child) be open to question the validity of it if he feels it doesnt jive with his sense of reality. If his upbringing religion does, why wish for him to believe anything else.

 

[bobhikes]

As far as I know indoctrination is used in every aspect of teaching. Especially in the K-12 teaching. You don't ask children how they would like to learn something you tell them how they will learn it. You don't give them any choices to pick or let them learn at there own pace you set standards on what and when that they must pass.

 

[LuisDantas]

@bobhikes : Indoctrination may be hard to avoid, but it is not the only and certainly not usually the best way of teaching matters.

I guess it is mostly unavoidable when it comes to language and other arbitrary matters. Religion is supposed to rise above such a level, though.

 

[loverofhumanity]

Indoctrination vaccinates one against accepting all truth and closes ones mind to the truth in other Faiths. It is a stigma and one of the illnesses of our age. We go through life only seeing our indoctrination and can no longer accept any other truth.

Priests and clergy are the main culprits using the indoctrination of fear to prevent their followers from accepting the truth in other Faiths. They control the minds of their followers through indoctrination. If they didn't do that by now we would have world peace because people would have arrived at the conclusion long ago that all our religions are but one religion.

But clergy, seeking power and control over membership do not teach love and unity and the oneness of religion but instead the exclusiveness and superiority of their own religion over others. This has led to prejudice and polarization between the Faiths, an invisible barrier if you like, erected by the clergy to prevent their followers from seeing the truth in other Faiths lest their membership dwindle.

If we all put aside our indoctrination and used our own minds we would all be united and there would be peace. We have all been indoctrinated into believing we are the sole custodians of truth and all others are false.

A Christian once told me the Buddha was from Satan and evil. I asked her to show me in the Bible where it says that. So many verses she showed me but I said I wanted to see the one that names Buddha by name as being evil. She couldn't show me because it's not in the Bible. That's what her clergy taught her.

We are better off without priests, clergy, Mullas, gurus and monks as they have been proven to disunite us and lead us to wars not to heaven. We have our own minds and that is all we need to find truth.

Now without my catholic indoctrination I'm free as a bird to love all Faiths and all religions and I don't need to go around saying Buddha or Muhammad or any Prophet is from Satan as they believe. At the same time I can believe in Jesus without rituals and ceremonies which were never endorsed by Jesus.

The day that there's no more clergy on earth indoctrinating and manipulating is the day this earth will become a paradise.

 

[Milton Platt]

Hello guys.

First off, I understand that indoctrination is feeding teachings, namely religious, to children while they are growing up living with their guardians.

According to that definition, do you see it is right or wrong?

I say it is right by default and place, as guardians are the ones responsible in upbringing children and they teach them what they see right for their future. Exceptions are always their, but please don't use that as an excuse here in your assessment. My threads always go within the norms and standards; the default position.

That is the norm....but being the norm does not make it also correct. Nothing wrong with telling your children what you believe, but if they grow up and discover you have no logical basis for your beliefs and choose another path, what then?

 

[psychoslice]

Teach your children how to think for themselves and question everything first, so when they grow up they will have the means to know right from wrong, or to question the things that are taught to them, because all they are without questioning is conditioning and programmed robots.