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'The War for Children's Minds is a brilliantly clear and convincingly argued defence of liberalism in moral education. Stephen Law examines and demolishes all the arguments in favour of authoritarian ways of teaching, and shows that in spite of the insistence of popular commentators from the religious right, a liberal and rational examination and discussion of moral questions does not lead to relativism and the decay of ethical behaviour, but can in fact be the best defence against them. This book won't be read by popular journalists: they will attack it without reading it. But it should be read by every teacher, every parent, and every politician. What's more, it should form the subject for discussion in every church, synagogue, mosque, and religious youth group. It's one of the most engaging as well as one of the most necessary books that I've ever read in the field of moral education.' Philip Pullman
Behind headlines on the conflict in Iraq and global terrorism, a much deeper battle is raging over children and the values they should adopt. Political and religious leaders including Blair and Bush have been joined by the popular press in Enlightenment-bashing and bitter attacks on ‘liberal parenting’, calling for a return to authority and religious tradition.
How do we raise good children? How do we make good citizens? In defiant yet acute fashion, Stephen Law urges us to re-evaluate the liberal tradition of thinking about morality. Tackling authoritarian rhetoric head-on, he argues that children should learn about right and wrong and respect for others, but that their education should be grounded in the hard-won values of the Enlightenment. Taking on neo-conservatives and religious and media commentators, The War for Children’s Minds is a candid and controversial call for a liberal, philosophically informed approach to raising children.
Rejecting accusations that liberal parenting is a Sixties hangover that entails an aimless ‘whatever’ attitude to morality, Stephen Law exposes the weaknesses of arguments calling for a return to authoritarian styles of moral education. He clearly shows that thinking for oneself does not mean that all moral points of view are equally good, or that we must reject faith in order to think freely.
A staunch defence of the humane, liberal life The War for Children’s Minds is a much-needed guide to an urgent moral conundrum.
Stephen Law is the author of the best-selling The Philosophy Files, The Outer Limits and The Philosophy Gym. He is a contributor to The Independent on Sunday and editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal Think: Philosophy for Everyone. He lectures in Philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London.
Times Educational Supplement
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining myth-busting book,
By BobbyBlog (uk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The War for Children's Minds (Hardcover)
Phillip Pullman says this book "Should be read by every teacher, every parent and every politician". He's right. A liberal-bashing mythology has grown up over the past couple of decades, led by social and religious conservatives who blame everything wrong with modern society on the collapse of religious authority. This is an entertaining book designed to bust these various anti-liberal myths. It argues for the importance of getting young people to think and question, even about religious matters. Law also completely demolishes the arguments of some well-known media figures in a very amusing way.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By Jonster (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The War for Children's Minds (Hardcover)
This is excellent. As a teacher I found this defence of the liberal approach refreshing and hard-edged. There really is no point in trying to force people to believe what you believe, but every point in helping them to work things out for themselves. The important thing is that children take the important questions of life seriously and that they reach conclusions that they genuinely believe in and would be prepared to stand up for. This is not relativism but an aproach that accepts that people are right and wrong about what they believe - but that they should be encouraged to hold well-thought out beliefs regardless of this. This book made me realise that we humans are not as bad as I thought we were, and that I really should have more faith in the capability of individuals to get to the truth.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informative overview of the debate on education,morality and religion,
By
This review is from: The War for Children's Minds (Hardcover)
This was a well argued rebuttal of some of claims against the Enlightenment idea that we should encourage people to be free to think for themselves and subject everything to critical scrutiny. My only qualm is that I would have liked to have seen more data from the projects on increasing emotional intelligence to bring the book up to date and make the defence of liberalism more empiricalStill it is worth reading in order to understand why the popular notion that morality requires religion or unquestioned authority is completely unsubstantiated.
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