Difference Between Education and Indoctrination
We all evolve from primitive humans into modern-day sophisticated human beings. It is all possible because our ancestors never stop learning.
They understand the value of learning and education; in today’s modern world we are still carrying the same legacy as our ancestors and made Education one of the most important parts of our lives.
However, the mode of learning and Education has changed over time.
Education vs Indoctrination
The difference between Education and Indoctrination is that Education is the way of teaching where the mind is free to imagine, to think, to question; whereas, Indoctrination is the way of teaching in which, our minds are forced to believe things or a set of rules without questioning them.
Education opens the doors of opportunity, knowledge, and wisdom. On the other hand, Indoctrination put an end to our thought process and stop us from gaining the knowledge or wisdom.
With Education, we can be more innovative and creative as it gives our mind the powerful tool of knowledge, through which we can see the world in our own way.
Education guides our path, gives us a chance to explore, to learn, to make mistakes and to rectify it. Education replenishes our minds with new thoughts and ideas, which leads a common man to greatness.
On the other hand Indoctrination is the way of teaching or educating someone in which we are not allowed to think or ask any questions.
It is the process that forces us to believe in a certain set of rules or ideology which is baseless or has the least possible meaning.
Indoctrination manipulates our mind in such a way that our brain forgets to think, it narrows our thought process and makes us blindly believe what is presented in front of us.
Comparison Table
| Parameters | Education | Indoctrination |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | It’s a process of enlightening, which is achieved by giving or sharing information, instruction | It is the process in which, people are made to believe in certain rules and beliefs without questioning them. |
| Teaching based on | It is mainly based on facts and the rules that imply in real life | It is baseless or has the least possible meaning |
| Practiced in | Education is implemented and practiced in real life like science and technology, or in other fields of expertise to make life our life better. | It is mainly practiced in religious beliefs, politics, and baseless ideology. |
| Development of Thought process | Education enlightened our mind and makes our thought process stronger | Mind is molded in such a way that our thought process lot its way of thinking in the right direction |
| Problem solving | With Education we can have many solution for the same problem, it depends on the situation. | With Indoctrination, there is only one solution for one problem. |
What is Education?
Education gives us the power and understanding to uplift our consciousness and to evolve ourselves into better human beings. It is the only way through which we will have a comprehensive understanding of this world.
A great Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory of psychological help where he discusses the different stages in human life According to Maslow, there are six different tiers all of which contains different sets of meaning in our life.
1- Psychological needs ( air, water, food we all need this to stay alive)
2- Safety needs ( house, job, money, property, health)
3-Love And Belonginginess (friends, relationship)
4- Esteem ( Status, respect, importance, recognition, etc)
When all these needs are satisfied, we get to the higher level of life
5-Self Actualization is the stage where people tends to be more creative, to develop a high sense of
morality, to be more spontaneous to solve problems to make discoveries, to accept facts, contribute to the society
6-Self Transcendence: It is related to true spirituality and self-enlightenment; we became more aware to develop unconditional love and a new level of unconsciousness.
Education plays an important role in our life to help us get through these stages so, that we can get to the higher level in the hierarchy.
We should not assume that education will stop one day because if we did, we will find ourselves stuck in the lower tier and miss out on so many things in life.
Education is a lifelong process; do not limit yourself, we must work to educate and develop ourselves until our last day.
What is Indoctrination?
It’s a way of teaching where what is taught to us is not based on facts, it is a belief that is considered to be true and we have to accept it without any questions.
To some people Indoctrination simply means brainwashing or blindly, following someone where our mind is being convinced in such a way that; we start to think that whatever told us is correct.
Indoctrination can be good and bad: We will try to understand it with the following examples:
Indoctrination in a positive way: In the Hindu religion there, is a belief that the cow is like a Goddess to them and killing a cow is considered a sin we have no prove or evidence if that’s true, but still the Hindus accept this belief and respect this poor animal, similarly they refrain from eating non-veg; which in turn saves the life of many innocent animals.
So it’s gives us a positive impact of indoctrination.
Indoctrination in a negative way: The terrorist attacks caused many people to lose their lives and property, but why do they do this? Why do they not fear death?
It is because their brain is molded in such a way that they think if we hurt people, they will become weak and fear us. Their leaders fill their minds with a set of rules that became a part of their life.
They are being brainwashed, they don’t care if they have to kill or die killing people. So, we see the negative impact of indoctrination.
Main Differences Between Education and Indoctrination
-
- Education is the process that opens our minds and gives us the power to think and encourage our imagination, whereas Indoctrination closes the door of our mind and restrain our thought process.
- Education inspires us to think, as compared to Indoctrination it tells us What to think.
- Education helps us achieve the main goals in our lives where as Indoctrination binds us to one thought and we remain stuck for the rest of our lives.
- Education gives us freedom of thought and action but Indoctrination is compelled on us make our minds a slave of other’s thoughts and beliefs.
- Education gives us a chance to make choices whereas in Indoctrination we do not have any choice.
References
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0268093042000207601
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0268093042000207601
Source: askanydifference.com
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Howdy
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The first two paragraphs have no standing IMO.
Indoctrination is a constant, and occurs in all walks of life. It is not just education, and neither is education the most prominent as one might expect it to be. Besides indoctrination stands the will to believe, and trust, so even the parents are the problem.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
“We all evolve from primitive humans into modern-day sophisticated human beings.” No! Modern-day sophisticated human beings could never survive in the natural world with which the “primitive” humans, who with the help of the Creator God they personally knew, did survive. Which is why we are here today!
Have a good day
Reply
Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
It seems education is a current topic of consideration here at PSI. I ask: How many writing about, or discussing, education have actually been teachers? I am a proponent of beginning at the beginning. So I review the history that Galileo was a teacher. Newton was a teacher. Lewis Agassiz (a generally unrecognized name) was a teacher. Galileo wrote a major book. Newton wrote a major book.
However, as far as I know, Agassiz did not write a book. Instead, Lane Cooper, an English professor at Cornell University, wrote and edited a book titled “Louis Agassiz As A Teacher” (1917) years after Agassiz (1807-1873), a Harvard professor and naturalist, had died. If one is curious as a scientist is said to be, I might ask: Why did English professor write about Agassiz, a naturalist, as a teacher?
Cooper immediately explains this in his Introductory Note. “When the question was put to Agassiz, ‘What do you regard as your greatest work?’ He replied: ‘I have taught men to observe.’ And in the preamble to his will he described himself in three words as ‘Louis Agassiz, Teacher.’
If you are curious you will try to find Cooper’s book to learn how Agassiz taught his students to observe. For observation is the foundation of SCIENCE.
Have a good day
Reply
VOWG
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People are taught things everyday, I guess I would be a teacher as in the past I taught many people many things.
Reply
Jerry Krause
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Hi VOWG,
You are still TEACHING. You are a Master of the brief comment. Which has to be simple because it is brief. For as Einstein stated: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. But Einstein also stated “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Which one must do to question everything before making a decision. And first one must see every ordinary thing that is so easily overlooked.
Which is how Agassiz taught his students to see by not telling them what they could see. He only required that they see all that he knew he had seen. And some of these students,who learned to see, learned in the first 15 minutes of their first assignment that they had NO IDEA what they were to OBSERVE. And one, after maybe five days of eight hour days, learned that he had failed when his report was rejected by Agassiz. But this student did not quit for he know what was not right according to his TEACHER.’S judgment, so he started over and after another five days he had seen that Agassiz had been correct because during the second week he saw what he knew he should have observed during the first week.
For as Einstein stated: “The only source of knowledge is experience.”
Have a good day
Reply
Koen Vogel
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The main difference is whether your teacher encourages you to question everything (educator) or to question nothing (indoctrinator). No scientific progress can be made when critical thinking is censored.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Koen and PSI Readers,
PSI Readers because everyone, not only Koen or myself, should PONDER “ponder | ˈpändər |,verb [with object], think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion” (New Oxford American Dictionary) and “question everything” and thank Koen for his thought (comment).
Have a good day
Reply
Alan
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The media, especially TV, is mainly to blame for this. Anybody can become an expert when on camera. One UK news channel is staffed by comedians and actors who seem to think they are experts on everything. A few days ago there was a debate between a failed actor and a doctor about lockdown, with them taking opposite views. Neither had any data to support their views. What are viewers who are looking for clarification supposed to make of this? It should come as no surprise in view of the leaked Hancock messages because the people we ultimately expect to protect us are the worst of all.
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Peter F Gill
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It is simpler than that folks. Education comes from the Latin to lead out. Indoctrination implies the opposite.
Reply
Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
Here I review a mistake that a junior college instructor, a teacher, made as he wrote what became a very popular meteorology textbook. And I believe he had no objective to indoctrinate any students, nor teachers (professors) who assigned his textbook for their college classes. I began the following because I considered that many people, meteorologists even, did not seem to recognize that “visibility” was an important fundamental meteorological factor primarily measured at airports for another practical purpose than to better understand atmospheric meteorology.
When I go to (https://forecast.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KSLE.html) to view local weather observation there is reported one factor “visibility” that I do not find commonly measured and reported elsewhere.
I happen to have the 3rd and 9th editions of C. Donald Ahren’s popular textbook “Meteorology Today”. Which has a glossary where in both editions is the same definition: “The greatest distance an observer can see and identify prominent objects.” But when I look in the index I can see how ‘visibility’ has evolved from the 3rd Ed. “associated with warm fronts 364, reduction by fog 171, 176-177, reduction by haze 170, reduction by pollutants 348, 512-513, 515 to the 9th Ed. “associated with cold fronts 303, associated with occluded fronts 308, associated with warm fronts 306, reduction by fog 114-115,119-120. reduction by haze 113-114, reduction by pollutants 290, 502, 504.
Next, when I go to read about the reduction by fog, in both editions, I find the same exact 1st paragraph; which I consider to be consistent with my experiences with fog. So I quote: “By now it should be apparent that condensation is a continuous process beginning when water vapor condenses onto hygroscopic nuclei at relative humidities as low as 75 percent.” I stop after this first sentence of the paragraph for I finally noticed the word “vapor” which Ahrens misuses according to its actual definition. For “water vapor” should be “water molecules” or “gaseous water” to avoid the confusion that this word “vapor” must create. Check its actual definition and see if you see the common misuse of “vapor”.
Have a good day
Reply