We all evolved 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 still carry the same legacy as our ancestors, making Education one of the most important parts of our lives.
However, the mode of learning and Education has changed over time.
Key Takeaways
- Education aims to impart knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities, promoting intellectual growth and independent thought. At the same time, indoctrination seeks to instil a particular set of beliefs or ideologies without encouraging questioning or dissent.
- Education fosters open-mindedness, curiosity, and a willingness to explore different perspectives, whereas indoctrination reinforces a single viewpoint and discourages critical analysis.
- An educated individual can make informed decisions and engage in constructive debates, while a person subjected to indoctrination may struggle to consider alternative viewpoints and resist change.
Education vs Indoctrination
Education refers to the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes through various forms of learning, such as instruction, training, research, and practice. Indoctrination is a form of education that emphasizes the promotion of a particular belief system, ideology, or worldview.
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 and gives us a chance to explore, learn, make mistakes and rectify them. 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 comprehensively understand 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 contain 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 Belongingness (friends, relationship)
4- Esteem ( Status, respect, importance, recognition, etc.)
When all these needs are satisfied, we get to a higher level of life
5-Self Actualization is the stage where people tend to be more creative, develop a high sense of morality, be more spontaneous in solving problems to make discoveries, accept facts, contribute to the society
6-Self Transcendence: It is related to true spirituality and self-enlightenment; we became more aware of developing 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 do, 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 means brainwashing or blindly following someone where our mind is being convinced in such a way that; we start to think that whatever is 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 proof 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 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?
Because their brain is moulded in such a way, they think if we hurt people, they will become weak and fear us. Their leaders fill their minds with a set of rules that become a part of their life.
They are being brainwashed, and 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 encourages our imagination, whereas Indoctrination closes the door of our mind and restrains 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, we remain stuck for the rest of our lives.
- Education gives us freedom of thought and action, but Indoctrination is compelled on us to make our minds a slave to others’ thoughts and beliefs.
- Education gives us a chance to make choices, whereas, in Indoctrination, we do not have any choice.
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0268093042000207601
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0268093042000207601
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
We have to keep educating ourselves to keep improving our lives.
If we could just have more people understand the importance of education, it would make a significant difference in the world.
Education and indoctrination are like the difference between teaching how to fish and giving a fish to eat.
It’s interesting how medieval education methods are still used in some places, stifling the potential of future generations.
It’s alarming how many people fall into the trap of indoctrination, neglecting the benefits of a true education.
Education vs Indoctrination – a clear battle of enlightened minds versus enslaved minds.