Children

Abstract

In the paragraph immediately succeeding his statement of the Liberty Principle, which speaks of the complete sovereignty of the individual over his own life. Mill wrote the following:

‘It is perhaps hardly necessary lo say that this doctrine is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties. We are not speaking of children, or of young persons below the age which the law may fix as that of manhood or womanhood. Those who are still in a state to require being taken care of by others must be protected against their own actions as well as against external injury.’ (Mill, 1859, p.73)

‘If you’re bored, you learn only how to be bored. Whether the timetable says maths, geography, or whatever.

If you have to do as you’re told all the time, all you learn is to be obedient and not to question things. You learn not to think.

If you’re forced to learn, you learn that learning is unpleasant. It’s no help that the teacher says it will come in useful later in life.’ (The Little Red School Book)

‘paternalistic interference must be justified by the evident failure or absence of reason and will; and it must be guided by the principles of justice and what is known about the subject’s more permanent aims and preferences, or by the account of primary goods.’ (John Rawls)