Abstract
This essay looks for an answer to the question of what kinds of pedagogically relevant authorities can be identified nowadays. With reference to Philippe Meirieu, it asks which forms of authority are essential if we want to bring children up to feel responsibility for the world and our cultural heritage.
Two types of responsibility are discerned: one binding and the other liberating. The discernment is executed in a traditional way through identification of that which is characteristic for individuals in respect to the kinds of authority they represent and to which legitimizing principles they refer to.
The goal of the essay is to show that pedagogical authority has to be liberating and that its legitimity lies in its ability to bring a child into a conscious and appreciative relationship not only with the world and people but with ideas in the first place.