The Demands of Liberal Education
Meira Levinson
Abstract
Develops a liberal political theory of children's education provision. It argues that all children have a right to an autonomy‐promoting education, and that this right is best satisfied through a state‐regulated ‘detached school’ that aims to help children develop their capacities for autonomy. Parents have the privilege to direct their children's upbringing in substantial and pervasive ways, but they do not have the right to prevent their children from developing the capacity for autonomy. There are nonetheless ways to encourage parental involvement and permit school choice. Although politica ... More
Develops a liberal political theory of children's education provision. It argues that all children have a right to an autonomy‐promoting education, and that this right is best satisfied through a state‐regulated ‘detached school’ that aims to help children develop their capacities for autonomy. Parents have the privilege to direct their children's upbringing in substantial and pervasive ways, but they do not have the right to prevent their children from developing the capacity for autonomy. There are nonetheless ways to encourage parental involvement and permit school choice. Although political liberals suggest that autonomy is too divisive of an aim, and that liberal schools should simply promote civic virtue, political liberalism and political liberal education are shown to be both theoretically and empirically inferior to weakly perfectionist liberalism and liberal education. Correctly conceived, autonomy‐promoting education contributes to the development of civic virtue, nurtures children's capacities for cultural coherence as well as for choice, and promotes equality.
Keywords:
autonomy,
children's rights,
civic virtue,
education,
liberal education,
liberal political theory,
liberalism,
perfectionism,
political liberalism,
school choice
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2002 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199250448 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003 |
DOI:10.1093/0199250448.001.0001 |
