The Status of Children's Intellectual Rights

It is suggested that U.S. public education systematically denies children's intellectual rights, that the kinds of educational experiences to which they are subjected discourage curiosity, creativity, and active participatory (dialogic) learning, and that children are thereby being deprived of the right to be “autonomous inquirers in the community of inquirers.” In the case of lower status children there is, beyond suppression of desirable intellectual outcomes, the active promotion of adverse ones. More significantly for societal concerns, however, it seems apparent that for all children public schooling sanctions a conforming style of self‐presentation and a learning environment which does not and can not develop the kinds of competencies required of adults in a free society. Problems and impediments in the way of implementing change—educational reform focused on education—are noted.