xcrunner
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This is an interesting thread. There's such a fine line between simply teaching what you believe and brainwashing.
IMO the important thing is to teach what you believe.. for example my parents are very religious, and as such I could say that they "brainwashed" me into being religious. And in a way they did for most of my childhood.. But I don't really have a problem with it because what else are they supposed to do? Not take me to church unless I ask to? Not teach me about God, the Gospels, etc? Of course not, of course they're going to teach me that because they strongly believe in it.
The thing is, there's one thing that EVERY parent/teacher/whatever should be teaching children, and that's to think for yourself. My parents did that and so did some of my favorite teachers and that is just the most important thing. Teaching your kids to pay attention to things like misleading statistics really makes them actually think and not just soak up information, accepting it without thinking. So to go back to my example of religion, my parents NEVER taught me to question religion. I don't think they really wanted me to question it
. But they did teach me to question "things" in general, to actually think for myself. As a result, I questioned religion... So it's not like parents have to tell their kids "well, son, i believe abortion is wrong, but it might be right! think about it". That's just gonna confuse a 12 year old and will go against your basic beliefs (if you believe abortion is murder it's not like you're gonna say 'well i believe murder is wrong, but maybe it's not'). But teach a kid "I believe abortion is wrong" and then teach them to question EVERYTHING, and eventually they will question even their most basic beliefs, like abortion is wrong.
A lot of this is also just leading by example. Take a super republican family. They are very into politics.. They listen to Rush and they watch Fox. When they argue with people, they don't really listen, they just preach the same things over and over. They are in love with every republican candidate and hate every democratic candidate.Or take a super democratic family who just watches CSNBC, vote democrat 100% of the time, like 100% democrat policies, etc. Same thing. They have kids.. Of COURSE the kids are going to grow up thinking like that! Because their parents are just as freaking idiotic/incompetent/brainwashed/plagues to the world.
If the parents just learn to be more open minded themselves- and maintain their conservative or liberal leanings or whatever, but realize that there are two sides to EVERY story, and not be so narrow-minded, brainwashing wouldn't occur, just by leading by example.
edit- this post is kind of rambling and disjointed. Sorry. It's 2:20 AM
Hopefully it makes sense
IMO the important thing is to teach what you believe.. for example my parents are very religious, and as such I could say that they "brainwashed" me into being religious. And in a way they did for most of my childhood.. But I don't really have a problem with it because what else are they supposed to do? Not take me to church unless I ask to? Not teach me about God, the Gospels, etc? Of course not, of course they're going to teach me that because they strongly believe in it.
The thing is, there's one thing that EVERY parent/teacher/whatever should be teaching children, and that's to think for yourself. My parents did that and so did some of my favorite teachers and that is just the most important thing. Teaching your kids to pay attention to things like misleading statistics really makes them actually think and not just soak up information, accepting it without thinking. So to go back to my example of religion, my parents NEVER taught me to question religion. I don't think they really wanted me to question it
. But they did teach me to question "things" in general, to actually think for myself. As a result, I questioned religion... So it's not like parents have to tell their kids "well, son, i believe abortion is wrong, but it might be right! think about it". That's just gonna confuse a 12 year old and will go against your basic beliefs (if you believe abortion is murder it's not like you're gonna say 'well i believe murder is wrong, but maybe it's not'). But teach a kid "I believe abortion is wrong" and then teach them to question EVERYTHING, and eventually they will question even their most basic beliefs, like abortion is wrong.A lot of this is also just leading by example. Take a super republican family. They are very into politics.. They listen to Rush and they watch Fox. When they argue with people, they don't really listen, they just preach the same things over and over. They are in love with every republican candidate and hate every democratic candidate.Or take a super democratic family who just watches CSNBC, vote democrat 100% of the time, like 100% democrat policies, etc. Same thing. They have kids.. Of COURSE the kids are going to grow up thinking like that! Because their parents are just as freaking idiotic/incompetent/brainwashed/plagues to the world.
If the parents just learn to be more open minded themselves- and maintain their conservative or liberal leanings or whatever, but realize that there are two sides to EVERY story, and not be so narrow-minded, brainwashing wouldn't occur, just by leading by example.
edit- this post is kind of rambling and disjointed. Sorry. It's 2:20 AM
Hopefully it makes sense
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