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Prejudice & Perception

An Education In Diversity?

Christina Easton asks if a liberal education can be forced on non-liberal communities.

The great liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) declared it “almost a self-evident axiom” that all children must be educated. Modern liberals tend to agree that education should be compulsory for minors in some form. However, here the agreement stops and some seemingly intractable problems arise. Education is seen as a means to liberty in later life; but what, for instance, should we say or do when imposing education conflicts with someone’s present liberties? And how can the liberal be consistent in valuing a diversity of views while advocating compulsory education, since the moment we state which education must be compulsory, we bring in a controversial vision of ‘the good education’, which may not be agreed upon by all who are forced into it?

These issues came to a head in the famous court case of Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972).

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