INDOCTRINATION

Serenity Corbett-Richardson

Political indoctrination is a method of indoctrination often employed by national and federal governments in which they teach curricula that favors a certain political ideology.

As philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche put it, "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."

These words are as true, if not more, as they were in 1881 when Nietzsche first penned them in "The Dawn." After all, political divisions are deepening at an alarming rate, and threaten peace every day. On a domestic level, there is a cause for this.

It is undeniable that the history curriculum assigned by the state varies greatly by region. Most of the curricula are assigned on a state or local level and tend to reflect the values of the region.

"Communities, schools, and classrooms across the country do things differently. These schools reflect the values of their communities and draw teachers from those communities who often share their values. How I teach about slavery in California may be different than how someone in Mississippi teaches about slavery because of divergent state requirements and lived experience in the different communities," Harrison said.

For example, states like Tennessee have used legislation to prohibit discussions of racism in K-12 schools, (per the Tennessee Department of Education's "prohibited concepts in instruction" law), whereas California classrooms often examine race critically in a scholastic setting. For example, Carlmont High School teaches an ethnic studies curriculum as well as reads books like "The Color of Water" by James McBride which sparks discussions about race and class privilege.

"From what I have seen, there are states who are calling for changes in curricula in public schools in response to what they call 'woke politics.' In many communities, people and organizations are calling for the removal of books from schools and public libraries," Harrison said. "In other communities, there are people and groups insisting on the inclusion of specific issues in school curricula. California recently started the process of ethnic studies for students in the public school and our district changed the 9th-grade social studies curriculum to replace world studies with ethnic studies."

These discrepancies reflect the ideals of the respective communities and could lead to dangerous political consequences.

"I feel like the differing curricula, particularly about Critical Race Theory (CRT), will greatly contribute to political divides in the future. If the topic is not even being mentioned, the divide grows and grows," DeMaria said.

Information can be thought of as magnification lenses on a microscope. When students in one region are deprived of the knowledge that students in another region have access to, they will view the world differently because those with the knowledge simply have access to a wider range of magnification lenses through which they can view the world.

"I think it creates more anxiety and conflict. To ensure people are truly educated and ready for the real world, people need to discuss difficult issues because the world can be a difficult place. We do a disservice to our children and our society by shielding them from reality," Harrison said.

Unfortunately, there are those in power who benefit from an ill-informed constituency.

"Many politicians and media figures are using the schools as a pawn to generate outrage and get attention," Harrison said.