The Encyclopedia Britannica gives a lucid definition of “indoctrinate:” : to teach (someone) to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group and to not consider other ideas, opinions, and beliefs
The word “indoctrinate” has become a buzzword for Republican candidates for describing how the history of race is taught in public schools. The very word “indoctrinate”describes what politicians and campaigners do when they lay that claim against teachers. They ask their listeners “to not consider other ideas and beliefs” when they accuse teachers of doing the same.
Meanwhile the Missouri State Social Studies Standards take great pains to require a process of study that includes thinking for yourself, not to indoctrinate, but to
•Ask questions: Why? Why there? Why then? What is the impact of…? What is the real story of…? What is the significance of…?•Develop compelling questions and research the past.•Anticipate and utilize the most useful sources to address their questions.•Develop and test claims and counter-claims to address their questions.•Take informed action based on their learning.
This is what teachers mean by “critical thinking:” looking at the options and selecting what makes the best sense according to each student’s learning and experience. Every public school teacher in every subject is taught to make this process available to students at whatever level they are capable of understanding it.
Does this sound like “indoctrination”? Because “critical thinking” is what public school teachers are required to teach, not “indoctrination.” If indoctrination takes place in any public school classroom, it is by rogue teachers.
On the other hand, when you examine the requirements of right-wing educators, it sounds very much like “indoctrination.” In the critique of the Florida Board of Education on the Advanced Placement Exam on African American Studies, the Board did not ask for a balanced presentation of topics for the AP Exam. Rather they wanted the topics eliminated from the actual content of the exam, so they would not be considered unless in a final research paper, where students choose their own topics. As the Washington Post reported on the AP curriculum after the AP Board heard from the Florida Board of Education.
In its revised 234-page curriculum framework, the content on Africa, slavery, reconstruction, and the civil rights movement remains largely the same. But the study of contemporary topics—including Black Lives Matter, incarceration, queer life, and the debate over reparations—is downgraded. The subjects are no longer part of the exam [emphasis mine] and are simply offered on a list of options for a required research project. And even that list, in a nod to local laws, “can be refined by local states and districts.”
When you subtract certain topics from the AP Exam, you can be sure those topics are not covered in any depth in an AP course. The curriculum fails to consider the topics “Black Lives Matter, incarceration, queer life, and the debate over reparations” at all, as though they did not matter to African American Studies. This is true indoctrination, where students are exposed only to non-controversial topics, the topics one political group approves of.
When you subtract parts of African American Studies from its official curriculum in the Advanced Placement Exam, you leave teachers no choice but to indoctrinate, to give an approved view of the curriculum. So what right wing educators and parents oppose is not indoctrination, but teaching what they disagree with, even to Advanced Placement students, who are expected to think critically even to pass them AP exam.
And to say that students have the liberty to study these topics in their research papers means only that students can investigate topics they are already familiar with, without having taken “African American Studies.” Most students will investigate what the topics of the class inspire for further study. If the topics don’t arise in the regular curriculum, most students will not be motivated to study them independently.
The word “indoctrination” is tossed about carelessly in the campaigns of right wing politicians. If we listen carefully and think critically, we will notice that they want their political views taught in the public school curriculum and not the political views of their liberal counterparts. That is the very definition of “indoctrination.” That is not at all what high school social studies standards require, but it is what certain politicians hope you will allow them to do to you.