"An indoctrinated person is intellectually paralyzed-- they are handicapped, unable to rationally explain the reasons for which they hold to their beliefs. They are unable, or unwilling, to see the other side," my TA explained. I thumbed through people in my mind, quite humorously, who I would label as "indoctrinated" according to that definition.
"Now," she interrupted my thoughts, "Have you been indoctrinated? Or are you educated? And how do you know?"
Silence filled the room. No one wanted to be the first to claim we had been educated, because we knew that the follow-up question would come and what if... what if we were unable to rationally explain our belief that we had been educated. Maybe the fact that we believed we had been educated was an indoctrination?
Finally someone gathered the courage to say, "I believe that I've been educated." Ah, she took one for the team.
"How do you know?" was our TA's only reply.
I felt a little sympathetic for the student. Only a little though... we all knew that question would come had we ventured to be the first to answer. She struggled to put an answer together for a bit and then a couple of sympathetic students stepped out to help.
I suppose it came down to the fact that we had been taught that we were receiving an education. We believed that we were being taught how to think and not what to think. We liked to pride ourselves in our ability to think outside of the box.
When asked about what made a teacher "good," many applauded teachers in the past who presented "unbiased" information. I, personally, had no problem receiving biased information. After all, was any information unbiased? If were supposedly being taught to think for ourselves and form our own opinion on issues, why was it so bad to see that our teachers had thought through complex issues and formed their own opinions? A biased perspective isn't a wrong perspective; it's simply partial. Many of my teachers-- if not all-- taught with a bias (aka, their own opinion), but often presented the other side. Rather than swaying me to join their side, it taught me that it's okay to form opinions about complicated and controversial issues, rather than standing back and refusing to take a side to avoid confrontation.
We then began talking about "open-mindedness" and whatever that could mean. I was surprised to find that the apparent consensus was that being educated meant you had to be "open-minded." How, I wanted to know, were you supposed to ever reach conclusions-- reached through the testing and evaluating of empirical evidence-- if you constantly had to be "open-minded," accepting every perspective as equally valid? Again, silence ensued. Finally, Ben, a classmate spoke up. He agreed. Being educated didn't mean you couldn't hold strong opinions and convictions about issues, it was more about how you reached those conclusions and whether or not you could defend your stance. A heated discussion followed. What if your conclusion was wrong? What if your evidence was skewed? What if you were (ugh!) biased?
Ah, so... what about you... have you been educated or indoctrinated?
wonderful.
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