Does education create drones?

I think this assumption shows an essential misunderstanding of what education is. 

Indoctrination creates drones. 

An indoctrinated individual is taught not to question authority, not to question provided answers, and to ignore evidence that challenges authoritative answers. 

There is another vital piece of the puzzle for this topic. 

Humans do not know everything. Teachers who pretend to have all the answers are being dishonest. 

Yet the opposite end of the spectrum needs to be avoided as well. 

To assume there is no solid foundation for peer reviewed curriculum is not logical. 

I recently had a conversation in which I mentioned to a friend that I have high cholesterol. 

My friend mentioned to eat eggs. I mentioned that my doctor specifically said to be a bit careful about eggs. 

She then responded that you will hear different information from different doctors. 

Should we always trust arguments from authority? 

No. 

Yet this questioning does not mean one should reject all evidence based information just because it comes from an authority: like many of the indoctrinated assume. 

Yet again this brings to the forefront the previously mentioned logical pitfall to avoid. 

Because doctors don’t know everything, does that mean they know nothing useful? 

Too many immediately distrust all advice from doctors. Likely because the assumption is made that they should have ALL the answers. 

It is ironic to me that the religious will say things like, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” when a person doubts and then leaves behind a religious belief. Yet many of these same people will throw out all trust of doctors, science, government, etc. without hesitation, simply because one of the before mentioned were  were wrong about something. 

This brings up another vital point. 

Because we don’t know everything, we can only teach what we do know. When we learn more, we must then adjust what we once taught. 

There is a reason that encyclopedias are only at their most reliable immediately after they are printed. 

The information in them depreciates as we learn new information. 

Education is also a process within an individual. 

Individuals must learn how to question the world around them. 

It is actually natural and important to ask questions, even questions others already know the answers to.

In fact this is a vital part of becoming educated. 

I teach art. When doing a watercolor painting, If a student asks why I ask them to paint light valued colors first and then dark colors later, how should I appropriately respond?

Too many teachers would either call the student out for questioning, “how dare you question my teaching,” or tell them “because I said so!”

The truth in this scenario is that a student doesn’t have to start with light valued colors, it is possible to succeed with other methods. 

In my case I ask students to do this because I feel it is more beginner friendly and It is the way I was taught. 

Is there any harm in letting a student know my reasoning? 

Only an authoritarian would answer yes to this question. 

There are however topics that are absolutely solid facts. 

I will use an example from the philosopher Sam Harris. 

If I say “George Washington was the first president of the United States of America.”

Is there any room for debate? No. We are a slave to the evidence. It is soundly documented and COMPLETELY verifiable.  

However, someone says, “George Washington was an absolutely devout Christian in every way,” It becomes a very serious matter of seeking evidence from letters, official documents, accounts from Washington’s contemporaries, and other primary sources, in order to make a conclusion. 

In this case new evidence can absolutely come forth on the topic. (He was by the way not quite what Christians would like to claim him to be.)

If someone tells you the bathwater you are about to throw out has a baby in it, you should look to see if that is true. 

If you examine the evidence and see that there is no baby in the water, go ahead and throw that water right on out!