I submitted this column in place of another that I had worked on this week. I had attended to finish up with my attempt to show how the political science of my friend Dean Burnham is relevant for an interpretation of the present political situation. I'm still working on it. So, after reading this morning about the attacks of new far right groups on universities, using examples of "indoctrination by orientation programs for first year students, I quickly added my "two cents."
The problem of indoctrination and teaching deserves a more detailed study. As is true of all our categorizations it leaves us with hard edged categories. Is teaching merely the explanation, the "why," for our moral pronouncements. Is it simply an addition to the Do Not Swim in this Lake poster with the phrase, "Because the Water is Polluted."
If so, then it seems to me but an extension of the original prohibition, i.e. don't swim in polluted waters. Is that "teaching?" Is it that simple to make the move from doctrination to education?
What if the original poster had read, "This Lake is Polluted?" Surely, this is not the same thing as a study of the nature of polluted waters, the sources of pollution, the effects of drinking polluted water, levels of contamination and their varying affects, methods of collection and analysis of contaminants?
Our teaching, and I'd expand this to our general level of political discourse, is not "education" (in the sense that I want it to mean) if it merely extends the prohibition.
Also, I should have added, I understand the pressure school administrators are under to "get out" the right warnings and messages. Student Life professionals are just doing their job when they
make clear what they interpret the law as requiring them to make clear, and doing students a service by pointing out the consequences that might follow action. This is, in an attenuated form, a kind of teaching, I suppose.
It is not, however, what we should expect in the classroom. Well thought out understandings should form the basis for our personal choices and these should be developed over the course of four years of classes, and experiences outside the classroom
This was the article I read this morning that got me started https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGllMQwLJlHDZjhlRlcXbVVKTlf
I submitted this column in place of another that I had worked on this week. I had attended to finish up with my attempt to show how the political science of my friend Dean Burnham is relevant for an interpretation of the present political situation. I'm still working on it. So, after reading this morning about the attacks of new far right groups on universities, using examples of "indoctrination by orientation programs for first year students, I quickly added my "two cents."
The problem of indoctrination and teaching deserves a more detailed study. As is true of all our categorizations it leaves us with hard edged categories. Is teaching merely the explanation, the "why," for our moral pronouncements. Is it simply an addition to the Do Not Swim in this Lake poster with the phrase, "Because the Water is Polluted."
If so, then it seems to me but an extension of the original prohibition, i.e. don't swim in polluted waters. Is that "teaching?" Is it that simple to make the move from doctrination to education?
What if the original poster had read, "This Lake is Polluted?" Surely, this is not the same thing as a study of the nature of polluted waters, the sources of pollution, the effects of drinking polluted water, levels of contamination and their varying affects, methods of collection and analysis of contaminants?
Our teaching, and I'd expand this to our general level of political discourse, is not "education" (in the sense that I want it to mean) if it merely extends the prohibition.
Also, I should have added, I understand the pressure school administrators are under to "get out" the right warnings and messages. Student Life professionals are just doing their job when they
make clear what they interpret the law as requiring them to make clear, and doing students a service by pointing out the consequences that might follow action. This is, in an attenuated form, a kind of teaching, I suppose.
It is not, however, what we should expect in the classroom. Well thought out understandings should form the basis for our personal choices and these should be developed over the course of four years of classes, and experiences outside the classroom