In this essay I argue that all children have a right to Autonomy Facilitating Education (AFE), and a corresponding right to freedom from indoctrination. Citizens of liberal-democratic societies have a fundamental interest in autonomy because it underpins what Rawls called the moral powers, because self-consciously liberal democratic societies cannot coherently endorse anti-perfectionist liberalism and must endorse at least weak-perfectionism with respect to children`s prospective right to autonomy, and because it is constitutive of a form of civic virtue the general diffusion of which is necessary for the vitality and sustainability of liberal democratic society. Autonomy consists in the exercise of two cognitive capacities: one self-reflective, the other self-affective. The aim of AFE is to develop these capacities by meeting three basic pedagogical requirements: The Knowledge Requirement develops the ability to access information. The Skill Requirement develops the ability to rationally evaluate and understand the relevant information. The Disposition Requirement develops the psychological disposition to engage the first two deliberative abilities (which together generate one’s considered best judgment) and then commit to that judgment and not deviate from it without first engaging the deliberative abilities again in light of new information, newly acquired evaluative skill or new understanding of the information. These requirements can be met from a range of pedagogical approaches, and parents have the right to provisionally privilege their own worldview in the pedagogical approach to their child’s AFE. I use this account to evaluate two Canadian case studies: the first involving lawsuits over the Ethics and Religious Culture program in Québec, the second involving recent changes to Alberta’s Human Rights legislation enshrining parents’ rights over their child’s education. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/3967 |
| Date | 01 May 2012 |
| Creators | Riddett, Matthew |
| Contributors | Macleod, Colin |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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