On University Indoctrination

We've been hearing the word "indoctrination" a lot recently, especially with regard to higher education.

University professor here. I'd like to say a word or two.

What we teach is critical thinking skills. Question assumptions; be cautious of language used in difference, deception, or error; do honest research (especially contrarian); explore all ideas (look for alternatives aside from those that appeal to you); be wary of emotional appeals; and avoid logical traps (errors in perception) and fallacies (errors in cognition). Explore various perspectives. Learn how to read constructively, understand, reach out. Challenge everything critically, and decide what the truth is. Learn how to write as a means of exploration and discovery. These are the tools of a free mind.

Then we open the door to knowledge. History, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Art, Sciences, Psychology, Literature, Politics, Languages, Sports, Math, Philosophy... all of it.

We let the students go where their will leads them, many for the first time in their lives free to walk the paths upon which their minds and hearts take them. We encourage them to come to their own conclusions. Any good teacher would give an "A" grade to a student who made an impassioned argument, even if it opposes what the teacher believes, so long as that argument is authentic, original, well-founded, and sincere. We don't want the kids in our classes to be clones of us. We want them to be armed with independent thought. It may indeed be exactly where their parents first led them, that's not as important as the fact that it is their true heart's calling. They are using their own voice, creatively, knowingly, willfully, assertively. That's the departure we crave.

It's not indoctrination. It's the opposite.

However, if you have raised your child trying to make them swallow whole your beliefs without allowing them to form their own, if you have made them believe without thinking, if you have tried to capture their soul in a box that bears your image... that is indoctrination, even if it was done out of love.

When their hearts and minds are freed, and if they choose a path different from yours... that's what you may feel is "indoctrination," because they did not go where you wanted them to go.

Know that all we did was give them freedom of the mind. And try to be happy that they have become their own selves, true to their own identity.