Indoctrination and Believing [microform] / James E. McClellan

The paper investigates the relationships among indoctrination, education, believing, and action in order to inform students and teachers of methods of openly and collectively guarding against indoctrination in the American school system. Four conditions for distinguishing indoctrination from education are: (1) intent of the teacher; (2) truth or falsity of content; (3) method of teaching; and (4) context of teaching, i.e., the existence of reward or punishment in the situation. A conceptual and political strategy illustrates a way of distinguishing between indoctrination and moral education. The first rule admonishes the teacher to do whatever is possible on an individual basis, for example, eliminating the condition of reward or punishment. The second rule suggests action up to the limit of incurring institutional repression, followed by rule three which recommends sharing matters one can't handle oneself with those existentially concerned, including students. Rule four states that both student and instructor views comply with a truth value which can be established as true because all its component parts are true. In conclusion, when the rules of procedure are followed, education instead of indoctrination will occur because students and teachers establish conditions that promote rationality (mutuality) in an effort to discover what they want to believe and how they want to act in accordance with those beliefs. (Author/DB)