Yes. That's what grooming is. It wasn't a negative term until it started to be used to only describe grooming for sexual activities. Another word like this is cult. The basis of it is basically cultivation or worship.

A more original definition of cult is "a system of religious veneration and devotion to a particular figure or object." Many religions today can be defined by that.

Even indoctrinate isn't necessary evil: a doctrine is a belief or setbof beliefs taught by a Church, political party, or other group. Indoctrination mainly means teaching that uncritically, which is often done with many different things other than religion. Generally the negative part is not allowing the students to take a critical view to see whether what is being taught is true and/or beneficial vs negative.