We always think out of some context, some tradition. Pure autonomy, as Spinner-Halev describes it, simply does not exist. Obedience to a tradition and critical thinking are not incompatible, as the author contends. But clearly, our public schools are not havens of tolerance, nor are private schools dens of self-superiority. Public school students do not learn tolerance simply by exposure to a smorgasbord of diversity.
Many religions have private truths at their heart.
This assertion assumes that secularity is logically prior to religion, that public truths are secular truths. That such an assertion is quite recent in the history of human thought seems irrelevant to the author's argument. Secular truths and language can be just as incomprehensible to religious people as religious language is to secular people. I suspect that another reason why many liberals and multiculturalists do not discuss religion enough . . . Spinner-Halev presents autonomy as an unqualified good.