{"id":792,"date":"2026-06-23T00:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/23\/education-v-indoctrination\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T00:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:26:16","slug":"education-v-indoctrination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/23\/education-v-indoctrination\/","title":{"rendered":"education v. indoctrination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Education builds bridges to new understanding. (educare:<\/em> to bring up; to nurture). Indoctrination burns bridges and prevents new ones from being built. (endoctriner:<\/em> to instruct; to imbue with an idea or opinion). Education makes the world bigger. Indoctrination keeps one sequestered in a silo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The reason anti-woke folks rail so hard against indoctrination is that they were shaped by indoctrination that was presented as education; and in the absence of actual education, it’s easy to conflate the two, or confuse one for the other. Their impulse to resist indoctrination is sound. The target of their ire is misplaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people who built these systems often believed in them completely\u2014which is exactly what makes indoctrination so effective. You don’t need cynics at the top. You need true believers who’ve never crossed the bridge themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s how the confusion between indoctrination and education perpetuates itself\u2014not through deception, but through unexamined inheritance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘woke’ just means ‘educated, and ready to cross the bridge when it presents itself.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘anti-woke’ just means ‘bridges are dangerous: it’s only safe in the silo.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good for you, for recognizing the importance of education, and the power of indoctrination to limit education’s reach. If you’re sitting with the anxiety of a world widened beyond the scale of what you were prescribed, just reach out. Folks are here for you\u2014just over the bridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Education builds bridges to new understanding. (educare: to bring up; to nurture). Indoctrination burns bridges and prevents new ones from being built. (endoctriner: to instruct; to imbue with an idea or opinion). Education makes the world bigger. Indoctrination keeps one sequestered in a silo. The reason anti-woke folks rail so hard against indoctrination is that … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"education v. indoctrination","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,27,124,28,14,26,15,9,39,30],"tags":[151,345,338,324,346,331,339,188,342,332,344,13,341,305,335,328,340,336,334,333,343,329,326,330,337,325,327,319],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicle","category-didactics","category-education","category-ethos","category-neurodiversity","category-personal-narrative","category-politics","category-reflection","category-work","category-zen","tag-anti-woke","tag-belief-systems","tag-bridge-metaphor","tag-bridges","tag-category-error","tag-closed-systems","tag-cognitive-bias","tag-community","tag-critical-thinking","tag-culture-war","tag-educare","tag-education","tag-endoctriner","tag-epistemology","tag-etymology","tag-indoctrination","tag-invitation","tag-open-inquiry","tag-political-psychology","tag-radicalization","tag-silos","tag-social-epistemology","tag-solidarity","tag-structural-analysis","tag-systems-thinking","tag-true-believers","tag-unexamined-inheritance","tag-woke"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paor1p-cM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":789,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/22\/on-wokeness-and-its-opposite\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":0},"title":"on wokeness, and its opposite","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"to be woke is to have a visceral sense of justice, as reliable as the senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, and cognition\u2014that allows one to recognize that the current language of justice is inadequate, as justice is not applied equitably across all who would access it; and to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1519.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1519.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1519.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":769,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/06\/a-brief-history-of-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":1},"title":"A brief history of school","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"American K-12 education, 1750\u2013present Part 1 in a series. In my study of what works in the effort to serve children's needs and help them to become happy and healthy adults, I take copious notes. I find it helpful, occasionally, to compile and summarize these notes into a narrative. Why?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1452.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":813,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/12\/complementary-adaptation-toward-a-kinder-view-of-neurodiversity-and-disability-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":2},"title":"complementary adaptation: toward a kinder view of neurodiversity and disability","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Two people in a boat. One can row, but cannot navigate. The other can navigate, but cannot row. If we view each as a whole, each has both an asset and a liability\u2014each is both abled and disabled. If we view the relationship as a whole, we can describe things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":852,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/11\/cognitive-centrism-missing-the-mark\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":3},"title":"cognitive centrism: missing the mark","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a mindset I keep seeing\u2014in Buddhist sanghas, autism advocacy, establishment political discourse. I call it 'cognitive centrism'\u2014inhabiting a kind of middle ground, not because one felt their way there, but because they computed it. Like cognitive empathy: decode, then perform the answer. Here's what it looks like: Someone defending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ethos"","block_context":{"text":"ethos","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/ethos\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1749-1.jpg?fit=800%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1749-1.jpg?fit=800%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1749-1.jpg?fit=800%2C448&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_1749-1.jpg?fit=800%2C448&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":824,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/18\/unkind-binaries\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":4},"title":"unkind binaries","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"this is one kind of harm caused by the abled\/disabled binary when it is applied as a permanent designation to people: it erases from view the environment that enables or disables a person, and it makes invisible all of the ways that the environment is designed to enable the abled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1667.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1667.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1667.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1667.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1667.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1667.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/14\/from-the-inside-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":5},"title":"From the Inside Out","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"September 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A Reading List in the Spirit of T\u014djisha-Kenky\u016b \u00b7 \u5f53\u4e8b\u8005\u7814\u7a76 Within T\u014djisha-kenky\u016b lies the potential of rearranging the relationship between the t\u014djisha (the person with lived experience of the condition being studied) and the specialist \u2014 in other words, between experienced knowledge and specialized knowledge. . . . The mutual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}