Analysis of the Relationship between Moral Education and Indoctrination

Is moral education a rational thing free from indoctrination or is it necessarily accompanied by moral indoctrination? In answer to this question and the relationship between moral education and indoctrination, there are two completely different perspectives. The opposite view of indoctrination denies any relation between genuine moral education and indoctrination. In this view, indoctrination is based on four criteria: intention, method, content, and outcome. In the proponents of indoctrination, the role of indoctrination is moral and vital, and inevitable. In this approach, since it is impossible to acknowledge the ultimate moral standard, the effort in moral education is certainly indoctrinated. The common denominator of the above two views is ignoring the age of the learner in the matter of moral education. The present study considers moral education without indoctrination to be impossible. But on the other hand, by confining the positive and necessary function of indoctrination to the early stages of child development, it will also distance itself from the perspective of indoctrination moral education. Since the child in the early stages of development lacks the necessary critical and argumentative powers to understand and accept and adhere to a moral standard, moral education in this period is mixed with indoctrination. This type of indoctrination affects the child's desires, habits, and expectations, which will lead to the formation of a moral commitment in her. Therefore, instilling moral principles in childhood will not violate the thinking and critical assessment of moral judgments in the period of her intellectual development and maturity.