Morality, Politics and Indoctrination

Both historical and etymological considerations suggest a link between the topic of the last chapter, religious education, and the topic of indoctrination. In the early stages of the long evolution to a modern educational system education was identified with religious education, and, as Gatchel has shown in his account of the evolution of the concept of indoctrination, ¹ in the Middle Ages religious education was equated with indoctrination in the strict sense of the passing on of the doctrines - literally, teachings - of the Roman Catholic Church. Hence the preceding discussion of the scope and place of religious education is especially pertinent to the question of indoctrination, although in contemporary discussions this is seen as a wider problem relevant possibly to all teaching areas, but with special implications for the teaching of morals and politics as well as religion.