ABSTRACT
For a child to be taken from the care of his parents and the company of his brothers and sisters and placed in institutional care when no fault or problem has been found with the child himself and when the parents concerned have provided for him all the expected amenities of life is something which demands explanation. It is a situation, though, which has occurred from time to time in recent years even in the liberal democratic context of Britain. Circumstances have varied from case to case, but in general the element in the situation which has produced this result has been a disagreement between parents and state over the form which their children's education should take. In the eyes of those professionally responsible the fact that the parents are failing to provide education for their child is the justification for their intervention, however drastic; in the eyes of the parents the provision by the state of only a type of education to which they object is a justification for their failure to comply with the education authority's demands.
