ABSTRACT
Having looked at some of the questions and problems about liberty and restricting liberty, about adults' freedom and children's freedom, I want to focus more specifically now on the implications of my arguments for the upbringing and education of our children today. I want to consider something of what it would mean to us as parents, teachers, citizens, politicians and planners if we were to take children and their freedom seriously, and include them as part of 'us'. Particularly, I shall consider the sort of education we would give our children if we lived up to our own rhetoric about freedom and democracy. As perhaps the first question about education that would arise, if children's freedom were sincerely valued, is whether education and/or schooling should be compulsory, I will start with this subject, and consider whether compulsory education is a morally justifiable restriction of children's freedom on paternalistic, or any other grounds.
