NationStates Jolt Archive


(Re-)Education

New Limacon
12-11-2007, 22:53
On this forum I keep seeing something like, "It's sad the way they brainwash the little children" or "That's just re-educating." I'm curious, though: when is something brainwashing, and when is it just education? For example, in third grade I was forced to memorize the multiplication table up to ten. I could have just as easily memorized verses from the Koran, or quotations from Chairman Mao, but few people consider someone who teaches math to have sinister motives. So what's the difference?
Wilgrove
12-11-2007, 22:55
I guess one would be against your will or against your ideology and one wouldn't.

*shrugs*
New Limacon
12-11-2007, 22:57
I guess one would be against your will or against your ideology and one wouldn't.

*shrugs*
I didn't want to learn my multiplication tables, though. Granted, it wasn't against my ideology, but it was certainly against my will.
Hydesland
12-11-2007, 23:02
Presenting an opinion as fact without offering alternative opinions.
Whereyouthinkyougoing
12-11-2007, 23:28
I didn't want to learn my multiplication tables, though. Granted, it wasn't against my ideology, but it was certainly against my will.

You should have told them it's against your religion. *nod*
Smunkeeville
12-11-2007, 23:33
multiplication facts are......facts.

nobody cares when you tell kids the truth, everyone cares when you tell them half truths and expect them to believe it fully without question.
[NS]Click Stand
12-11-2007, 23:36
Presenting an opinion as fact without offering alternative opinions.

Yeah well where was my alternative to the to the multiplication tables. I could have just as easily learned different ones based on my teachers opinion.
Bann-ed
13-11-2007, 00:04
Click Stand;13210558']Yeah well where was my alternative to the to the multiplication tables. I could have just as easily learned different ones based on my teachers opinion.

The key word was "opinion". In society today, as we use mathematics, the multiplication tables are fact. It is not the same as presenting an opinion as a fact.
NERVUN
13-11-2007, 00:45
It's very simple, when teachers are teaching something you agree with, it's sound education based upon the facts. When we teach something you don't like, then we're brainwashing your children, presenting our opinion as fact, and/or distorting the truth.

The same applies to SCOTUS. When you like it, it's sound law and Constitutional. When you don't, it's judictial activism. ;)
Bottle
13-11-2007, 00:58
On this forum I keep seeing something like, "It's sad the way they brainwash the little children" or "That's just re-educating." I'm curious, though: when is something brainwashing, and when is it just education? For example, in third grade I was forced to memorize the multiplication table up to ten. I could have just as easily memorized verses from the Koran, or quotations from Chairman Mao, but few people consider someone who teaches math to have sinister motives. So what's the difference?
The main difference, to me, is the distinction between forced memorization of simple facts (i.e. the multiplication tables) versus forced memorization of an ideology or philosophy.