Changing meanings of equal educational opportunity

Abstract

Although it is very difficult to be clear about the meaning or meanings of equality, this concept has had a special appeal in countries such as our own. To Alexis de Tocqueville is attributed the point that democratic nations are at all times fond of equality, but there are certain periods when social status barriers are pulled down which cause the passion for equality to rise to the height of fury. For the last decade or so, we seem to have been in such a period, for there has been strong interest in a kind of equality affecting various social categories. I refer to equality of educational opportunity. While not so much has been written about equality as about freedom, the idea is an old one which has fascinated the thoughtful from the time of the ancient Greeks. In his writings, Plato argued that even girls and poor children deserved a chance for education of their talents. He was aware of the different characteristics and abilities people possessed which pertained to qualitative equalities even while he embraced the meritocratic principle. Similarly, Aristotle thought inequality to be a cause of revolutions and tied his concept of equality to the ideal of justice which permits certain inequality if the right principle is employed, e.g., the most talented musicians, not the wealthiest, deserve the best instruments.1