When politicians talk education, I usually get up off my rear and go find a snack. To put it bluntly, I hate education talk. I find it disturbing when conservative pundit after conservative pundit proclaim the “liberal” education system indoctrinates young people into becoming voting, card-toting, members of the socialist movement (especially since many conservative “experts” were educated in the same system they rail against). Contradictions of the talking-head punditry aside, I increasingly find myself realizing that “indoctrination” talk is simply the wrong way to look at university education in this country.

What conservatives call “indoctrination” is what I call questioning the status quo. Educational institutions constantly ask questions and challenge the existing system for the sake of exploring its foundation and finding out why it ticks. Institutions that are conservative or traditional in nature are bound to be questioned because of their long-lasting, slow-changing nature. There is nothing wrong about exploring possibilities, even if those possibilities have long been disproven (socialism, eugenics, etc.). There is nothing incorrect about considering hypotheticals or asking why things work they way they do. Further, it is no less positive to research how the current system can be improved. Where would society be had not universities questioned the status quo in everything from social science and law to astronomy, engineering, and medicine?

The main point I’m trying to make is that university education is inherently liberal; it is of a questioning and ever-changing nature. The culture of education is such that the existing system is challenged, explored, picked apart, and assessed. And maybe even put back together, improved from its previous condition. Unfortunately, most conservatives do not often recognize this nature. In my mind, conservatives fail to recognize that blind acceptance of traditional norms or the existing system threatens society to accept the roots of tyranny de facto.

Do not get me wrong, there are some dumb professors out there who wish they could change the world with their liberal, “everyone can change” dogma, who in fact, bash traditional institutions. My advice to a student who finds it annoying: drop the class and find a different prof. or get some earmuffs. If you’re dumb enough to accept truth from anyone, you’re stupid enough to be a slave to everyone (i.e. government).