OK...seriously folks. take that deep breath. just because someone has differing views does not make them evil incarnate. really...it doesn't. just because someone feels we should do more to help the lower class does not make them evil. just because someone feels that tax breaks can fix all our woes does not make them evil. differing ideas can be very powerful.
some of the best solutions I've ever implemented came from whiteboard sessions with strongly opinionated folks. whether we had to overcome a political obstacle within the organization or a technical obstacle in the system. sometimes the solution implemented was not the best technically, but it met other constraints in such a way to make it the preferred solution (office politics, user base training, cost, time line, etc). Some solutions are spectacular while others are bland. but that's OK, slowly and surely progress is made. in fact, there are some who believe that very dynamic helps us move forward in a safer manner. as i told a colleague of mine, "we are a good combination. you are very conservative in nature and i am very curious. this helps our network. without my new ideas, the network would grow stale and outdated. without you to help define direction and slow the implementation of those ideas, the network would grow unwieldy and ineffectual."
If you kept your child from watching Obama's speech out of fears of indoctrination, then please do not use the word "indoctrination" as a bad word in and of itself. why? Because, your desire to keep the child from hearing the Commander in Chief of the United States of America out of fears that he will somehow indoctrinate your child to some twisted socialist plot is nothing more than you indoctrinating the child in the opposite direction. indoctrination is indoctrination (which, by the way, you may want to update your working definition of the word)
lets take a second to review "indoctrination" and "education". i kinda like the opening line of the wiki article so i'll just post it here for you... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoctrination
"Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology. It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned. As such it is used pejoratively. Instruction in the basic principles of science, in particular, can not properly be called indoctrination, in the sense that the fundamental principles of science call for critical self-evaluation and sceptical scrutiny of one's own ideas."
i believe it is good for a growing mind to be exposed to numerous different beliefs and ideas. perhaps the more the better. but definitely more than one. expand the mind of the next generation. help allow them to be greater than we are/were. there's a lot of people on this rock we call earth. finding ways to get along and understand others will become more important as time wanders on.
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