Education for Autonomy: the Role of Religious Elementary Schools

I argue that religious elementary schools whose pedagogical methods satisfy the principle of rational authority have distinctive advantages over secular elementary schools for the purpose of laying the foundations for ethical autonomy in the children of religious parents. Insights from developmental psychology bolster the argument from conceptual analysis. Before children have the cognitive capacities to engage in authentically autonomous reflection, their long-run interest in developing autonomy is best served by developing their understanding of and provisional identity within their primary culture and by encouraging a limited form of ethical reasoning within the framework provided by that secure cultural identity. Are children who attend religious schools less likely to develop ethical autonomy, understood as the capacity and inclination for ongoing, critical-rational reflection about one’s conception of the good, one’s ethical belief