To stand up against indoctrination in schools, Greg Lukianoff proposes principles for “the empowering of the American mind” on the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) blog.
If K-12 education is to include moral education, it must allow students to question or dissent from the moral education it provides, without fear of punishment. Otherwise, it is indoctrination and thought reform, not education. When students disagree with moral instruction, they should be graded on how well they argue their counterpoints; they should not be treated as if they had committed a sacrilege. There is a realm of personal conscience that those in authority have no right to invade. If we are to have a truly free, diverse, pluralistic society, the most K-12 educators should do is to try to persuade; they should not force adherence to any ideology.
Is Lukianoff willing to stand by his statement 100%? What if someone's point of view (slavery is OK, we should euthanize the mentally disabled) is entirely reprehensible? Or worse, what if someone's point of view hurts someone else's feelings? We can't have that, can we? Lukianoff's goal is laudable, but sadly, I'm sure it's far too much to expect from public school teachers.
Students should not be pushed to adopt a religious or political faith in public school, writes Lukianoff.
Read the whole thing.
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