There are three institutions where children get indoctrinated—the home, Church, and school. Of course, now there is social media and more, and I will get to that, but let's start with two of these three institutions. First off, you can't change homes. Whether you agree with what a family teaches a child, it is their right to raise their child. As long as the child is cared for, it is none of anyone's business. Right there, we could solve many issues, people minding their own business. What I am getting at is I am not commenting on how families raise children. I have no children, and while I have a rough idea of what I may want to say or do for child-rearing, even if I had some, it isn't my place to comment on how others do it. If you keep your kids healthy, give them the best life you can, and put them ahead of yourself, then carry on.
So when I say Church, I mean all organized religions. I am not about to put any religion above any other. Every single one of them has done horrible shit throughout history, and every single one of them tries to do good. I may "focus" on Christian stuff as I know it slightly better. However, all these things run the same... It is always the zealots that mess things up. Mix it up, start with the bad, then end with the good. I have seen protest signs on documentaries on the AIDS epidemic in the 80s that say things like "God hates fags" I am not a biblical scholar. Still, I don't think Jesus ever said, "Hey guys, I really hate homosexuality." His message was to love thy brother. I am not arguing that the bible doesn't have anti-gay writings in it; it does. HOWEVER, the whole message Jesus spread was to love and be kind to mankind. Take the book as a whole and remember the bible was written by men. So, it will be sprinkled with the writer's beliefs, and over the last couple thousand years, it has been transcribed many times. Look at this line "godisnowhere." Many ancient scribes didn't have proper spacing and punctuation. So what does that say? "God is now here," OR is "God nowhere"? People are taking an ancient book and interpreting it to their needs. That's the issue with religion. You look at the overall message of most religions: peace and kindness, love and happiness. However, at some point, each one also has anger and hate. There is a lot of Old Testament stuff where god is smiting the fuck out of everyone. That's fear; even 2000 years ago, they understood fear was a great way to manipulate people. To this day, we use fear to push agendas and make people do what we want. Jesus supposedly came around and brought love and forgiveness; that is what people need to take away from those writings. Not hate or fear; those aren't positive things, and religion is full of good stuff if you are paying attention. Where do many people turn when they are scared? Down to the soul scared, a higher power. People pray, bargain, and do whatever they feel it takes to help. It might not be a good religious practice, but that is where they go because religion fills a basic primal need of humans—belief, faith, hope, and meaning. Every human has these issues, thoughts, fears, or whatever you want to call them. They wonder about things, and religion fills that out for them. Science takes a good crack at it, but at the end of the day, people need to believe in something more significant, whether it is correct or not. We need hope; it seems we need it more now than ever; that's why I am writing these blogs. Religion gives people that. You can attend Church or read the bible and get many positive lessons. Loving, caring, charity, kindness. We could use a lot more of this in the world as well. Like most things, religion is at its core good, BUT humans gonna human, and we wreck things. We start organized religions and commit atrocities. We take something good, and we corrupt it. What I am getting at is we see more and more shit like the Westboro Baptists, and we start to shit on something that should be good. They are indoctrinating hate, and that isn't what religion should be about.
I am going to make two comments on religion. First, leave them alone. If it isn't hurting anyone and it makes someone happy, let them enjoy it. That isn't to say one can't point out flaws, but if a religion isn't hurting anyone, let it be. If they aren't throwing it in your face, leave them alone. It returns to mind your business; if it isn't hurting you, leave it be. You don't believe that's fine, but people who mock others for something that makes them happy are the worst kind of people. Second, suppose religion is telling you to hate, spread hate, or do something against your fellow man. In that case, it isn't a good religion. If it is sexist, homophobic, or racist, chances are it's wrong. Anything I have ever read about religions is they start with love and peace; it is mankind that twists it, and that's when it is no longer a good religion. Lastly, Church, state, and school should always be separate.
School should be about facts and about how to learn, nothing else. 2+2=4. Math is one of the great things people can learn as it is a solid fact. Math is solid, unlike subjects such as social studies or English, which are up for interpretation. Schools should be putting solid facts into children's hands. Sure, a child can learn social studies. WWII started when Germany invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939. Fact. What happened during the war are verifiable facts, all good to learn. I assume the teacher is anti-Nazi, but at the end of the class, the child shouldn't know that. Any half-smart kid will, but what I am getting at is teachers' views on anything don't matter. Sorry if that is offensive to teachers, but it is true. The students should learn facts and how to learn, not the teacher's beliefs. Teachers should be the same as judges: neutral. More and more, this is not the case. Even at very high levels, I have seen personal opinions taught. I am currently working on a business degree. I had to take options, and one I enjoyed was political science. It was a decent course, and the text was current, but it had an anti-Trump slant. Personally, I am not a fan; I wouldn't have voted for him, but when a text in university has a slant on current events, that is not a good thing; in fact, it is dangerous. To drive a point home, examples help; however, why would you not use an example of someone else throughout history? He is far from the first or only populist leader. Schools should not be indoctrinating people. At the university level, people can see the slant. Still, if it happens there, I assume it happens at younger levels, and I doubt children see through it. Also, things should be standardized as much as possible. Some subjects are subjective but should be as standard as possible. The content matters in English; it needs good arguments, but that is hard to mark. Someone may disagree with the point being pushed and mark something lower, even if it is a well-thought-out point. This has flat-out happened to me. MANY years ago, when I took my first crack at university, I handed in an essay and got a failing or a barely passing mark. The next year, I redid all the courses and mostly had different professors. I handed in the same essay and got a much better mark. It hadn't been changed one bit. I did lose marks as my grammar was still garbage, but it was praised as clever. How can students in the same school, taking the same course but with two different teachers, get such drastically different grades? That is not right. Subjective things should be marked on what isn't. Grammar, spelling, and such aren't subjective, and yes, it took me a while to understand, but it is important. Writing is a hard-to-read mess without good structure, like some of my blogs. Like social studies, people can debate until they are blue in the face of the merits or downfalls of political systems. Facts, however, are facts that people should be taught. Schools shouldn't be teaching opinions but how to form well-thought-out opinions.
I have to mention homeschooling quickly. You, as a parent, are not a teacher. You teach life lessons, which are very important, but you aren't an educator. Educators have learned the best ways to teach children regardless of your feelings on the education system. You haven't. You may disagree with what they are teaching, and as a parent, that is your right; you can have discussions with your kids when they get home, but I can guarantee they have better ways of making things stick. On top of that, there is the whole social aspect. Kids need that interaction. If you don't learn how to act in society, you are pretty much screwed. What people do in life depends as much on the relationships they grow as on skills. A person has to be the very best, to live life as an antisocial human and get along. If you are good but can't get along, chances are you can and will be replaced. Children need that interaction to develop.
This one was shorter, and maybe someday I will revisit it. I just wanted to ensure we watch out for the indoctrination in certain places. Right-wingers will yell school is brainwashing kids. Left-wingers will say the Church (To be sure, they will only point the finger at Christians) is dangerous and dated. The truth is both can be right, and both are wrong. It is harder to deal with the Church as they can preach whatever they want. Hopefully, people can take the positives from the Church, the kindness, charity, and so on, and not feed the zealots. The truth is religion isn't bad, but like most things, humans gonna human and take things too far. Schools, on the other hand, are public, and we should be having a long look at them. Students shouldn't know a teacher's ideals. They should be taught facts and the tools to form informed opinions independently. Ultimately, it boils down to parents; it is your responsibility to teach children right from wrong. To sit them down and talk about what they are learning from anywhere. As I stated earlier, we as a society can't change family values. We need to make sure public schools teach how to think, not what to think. We need to take religion back from zealots; it shouldn't be used to push hurtful views but to share peace and love.
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