The difference between education and indoctrination
By: Gina Dalfonzo|Published: September 16, 2011 5:11 PM
Rating: 5.00
A while back,
we reported on some of the startling findings of the
Cardus Edcuation Survey. Christian university professor Karen Swallow Prior, drawing on her many years of teaching, offers an insightful analysis of those findings
here. A sample:
. . . While I understand slow, steady progress toward solidified beliefs and views that naturally change over time, swings from one extreme to another give me pause. I’m reminded of the truism, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
At first glance, it might seem ironic that one-time cheerleaders for conservative Christian views land so far afield. Yet, if the unexpected happens often enough, perhaps it’s not so unexpected after all.
My own conversations with Christian students who have undergone such revolutions in thinking suggest that their earlier stands — despite appearances — were built not on foundations strong enough to withstand the inevitable rattling from opposing views. Their beliefs rested on weak scaffolds gradually dismantled by each successive encounter with a previously unconsidered idea, fact, or phenomenon.
Human history is a series of pendulum swings from one extreme to another. This can be as true of individual growth as it is of culture, and some swings should not be prevented. But in the faith journey, perhaps such severe swings point to a systemic problem more than a personal one. Perhaps the deepest systemic weakness in conservative Christian education is the failure to distinguish between education and indoctrination.
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Comments:
I do believe that all truth is indeed God's truth. At the same time, I recognize that any biblical epistemology must also take into account our fallenness, and that this impacts our reason as well as all other aspects of who we are and what we do. I find Jesus' words in John 7:17 very revealing, showing that there is a moral and volitional component to our perception of Truth.
As for the violent pendulum-swing about which the author writes, it is a pity, and I too think it is more likely a consequence of rote indoctrination. Go ahead, allow people to doubt and to express their doubts, but also encourage them to be consistent in their doubting. (C.S. Lewis showed this SO masterfully in his essay, "Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism.")