At my new job, which I haven’t yet written much about, I have the pleasure of working with four young children with amazing computer skills. They’re quite gifted, and make me feel grossly inadequate. An interesting thing that happened today was that I overheard one of the girls declare, “I hate George Bush!”
I was actually startled by this; I wasn’t expecting such a powerful proclamation from such a young person. At that point, I felt like asking, “why?” I quickly realized that posing this question would have been futile. It’s not that I don’t agree with her opinion, per say, I was just very sad that I was looking at a child spilling out her parents’ opinions.
For me, the instance was a powerful reminder of Richard Dawkins‘ book, The God Delusion, an atheist manifesto. Now, don’t let that description scare you off, there’s a point to be made here. Dawkins takes a sizable piece of his book to write about how he thinks that religion is a curse upon children. He argues that calling a child a “christian” child, or a “muslim” child is absurd. Similarly, he says that labeling children by their guardian’s political party is just as nonsensical. I tend to agree, but wonder, is it possible to isolate children from opinions, enabling them to think for themselves?
Definitely not possible to isolate children from opinions unless they are physically isolated from everyone and everything else in the world– and that’s not a bad thing. The exchange of ideas is what makes it possible to form informed opinions. There’s definitely cases of parents indoctrinating children in a way that’s pretty much disgusting (I caught part of the History Channel’s special on the KKK, just enough to see their leader address them with a sleeping baby in a white hood in his arms). But if you look at it in another light, you could say the parents are instilling their values in their children. That might be troubling if you disagree with those values, but it’s a better alternative than leaving them to get their values from who knows where.
And for the record, the creepiest example of mainstream indoctrination I know: The Pledge of Allegiance.
Say it ain’t so Kim! Not possible!
Well, I think you’re right, but I leave the question open.
Ekk, the Pledge. Honestly, I can’t stand watching a standing group of children say it. But, recently in Dover, I don’t see too many people saying it at all. They just stand up, instead. It could have something to do with apathy as they get older, or maybe everyone’s terribly mad at their government.
Right now I’m reading Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason, and it has so many ideas that relate to this discussion. I recommend it as a read to everyone.