ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how the French school system socialises pupils in the so-called 'republican model', a system of values centred around equality, tolerance and universality. It considers an alternative effect that by increasing knowledge and cognitive skills education implicitly transforms attitudes related to prejudice. The book provides the model found in most Western European countries, in which education is the most important factor explaining prejudice. It argues that choices are of two types: normative choices which are by definition one-sided. The book explores the effect of education on the consistent application of values to choices. It illustrates how a higher level of education contributes to relating abstract values to more specific issues such as those of minorities, and thereby reduces prejudice. Dutch 'subtle racism' thus seemed to be mundane and psychological rather than political in content.
