Education vs. indoctrination.

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I spent today watching videos (because who really does anything productive on New Years Day, and besides, it was way too cold to go outside).

This video made my heart hurt.     In the first section, the late Carl Sagan is shown teaching a 6th grade class science.    You can tell how much Sagan loves what he is teaching and also how much he enjoys helping these kids open their minds, nurturing their curiosity about the world.

The second part is a jarring contrast.   It’s a scene from the documentary “Jesus Camp,” a Pentecostal Christian children’s camp.  The kids, rather than being encouraged to think and wonder and dream, are being indoctrinated in hatred and specifically, hatred toward the government and public education.

These kids are literally being trained as “warriors for Jesus.”   It reminds me so much of al-Quaeda training.

It makes me so sad that so many people in this country would rather have children getting the second type of “education” than the first.

13 thoughts on “Education vs. indoctrination.”

  1. I watched the whole of Jesus Camp a few years ago. I couldn’t watch that part of the video because I think I’ve gotten even more sensitive to this kind of shit…especially when it comes to kids. So wrong and so sick. They are too young to even understand what these assholes are even telling them and teaching them. It makes me want to vomit.

    And on that note, do you happen to know what year that was with Carl Sagan in the classroom? Was he a teacher of 6th graders or was he a visitor that day to this particular school?

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    • I was wondering what year too, but couldn’t find a date printed. But Sagan, who was born in 1934, looks to be about 40 or so, so maybe it was made in the 1970s. Although the fashions look more early-1980s, so maybe Sagan was closer to 50 but just looked young for his age.

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      • It’s funny I went through the same thought process for the most part. I hadn’t put a number on his looks but I did ponder the fashions of the kids and tried to match a decade to that. lol. Sagan was just 4 years older than my father.

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  2. Babies come into the world knowing virtually nothing. They get a lot of knowledge from adults. Both places showed adults telling kids things they consider true. Actually, the scene from Jesus Camp looked more like a magical working. When I practiced Wicca, we took objects that we designated as poppets to represent things we wanted to do magick on. They were symbolically smashing corrupt government, not just government per se. That video actually fused two separate scenes into one. This wasn’t a science class so it’s comparing apples and oranges.

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  3. It is a criminal thing to stifle a child’s capacity for critical thought and try to make them warriors in a cause not of their own choosing, and teach them to hate when they are too new in the world to know what that means.

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  4. Dear LuckyOtter and Friends, like nowve666 said, “apples and oranges.” False teachers are everywhere, and when their fruits involve getting children worked up into (political) matters they are not mature enough to handle…sounds like rotten fruit. Also, this practice is a slap in the face to the many Christians who live in countries governed by monsters. The Christ-camp video, based on the people’s accents, seems like it’s from New Zealand or Australia…where you can walk down the street with a Bible, approach people with the Gospel, and the worst that will happen to you, is to be told to go th’ [bla-bla] elsewhere. In some countries, and we all know this, even having a Bible in your dresser drawer can get you hauled off to some really rotten jail. As for politics, Jesus Christ took alot of heat, because he was not a political animal – and He had more important things to do than going around getting people worked up against the Romans.

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    • Okay. I started to watch this, but as soon as the guy started talking about the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, I tuned out. I do not believe that ever happened, the idea of it is patently ridiculous, and I’m not saying that because I’m a Hillary fan (I’m not). I also am deeply suspicious of anyone who likes 4chan or 8chan. Those are troll sites and full of sociopaths and internet bullies. This guy is a Trump supporter and believes the crackpot conspiracies. I will never, ever support Trump or his evil regime.

      Trump is not trying to stop corruption at all, in fact he is the king of corruption. How anyone can not see this is mind boggling. The so called “deep state” is NOT Soros or the Left: the Deep State is the billionaire oligarchs and the Kochs and Russian infiltration into our political system. The Deep State is Donald Trump and his greed and his enriching himself and his businesses on the backs of the people. Trump and the alt right are projecting onto their perceived enemies.

      Trump is a narcissist with no empathy or regard for his fellow man. I believe he is thoroughly evil and there is no way God would ever use someone so unrepentant and lacking in the ability to humble himself in any way, shape or form. Unless it is to show us our dark side, which is possible.

      I don’t care what this guy says, I think he is full of it. I sure as hell am going to believe something I read in the Washington Post or CNN or NBC over some troll on Breitbart or conspiracy theorist on Youtube who likes to read 4chan and 8chan.

      I pray and have dreams too, and God has told me Trump is the antichrist and has deceived many.

      “By their fruits you will know them.”
      That’s what I go by, and I see nothing but rotten fruit coming from Trump and his organized crime ring. They ARE the swamp. There is a coldness and lack of empathy among all of them that is simply blood curdling.

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  6. In the end children make up their own minds and most in my view will do it based on what people do and not what they say. They are often quicker to pick up hypocracy than we adults. In the end they tend to rebel against people whose actions do not match their words. In life I believe the biggest influence on children is always what we do.

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