Plato's Unfreedoms

Age entirely changes the experience of inclusion or exclusion from the political representative story of participation in public civic life. Rather than being able to state opinions and claim positions on their own behalf, prolonged experiences of unfreedom remain the hallmark of childhood, partly understood as a phenomenology of development, and more so as a first phase toward becoming fully human. Aristotle, like Plato, believes the state should intervene on behalf of children when their interests were deemed jeopardized. He also believes in public education systems albeit for different reasons. While Plato reasons different kinds of education for different classes of people as beneficial for society, Aristotle, from his belief that citizenship is an individual’s performance in public life through participation in legal and political processes, envisions public education as training for people to become …show more content…
There have been several attempts over at least the last 100 years to bring children’s opinions into the public sphere but none have succeeded. Despite the direct impact public policies have on young people their positions are rarely recognized. From this point of arrival, this essay discusses a material understanding of children’s unfreedoms, recommends ways to increase their inclusion in public deliberative processes, and explains the importance of children’s political participation in the local communities where they live. Throughout this discussion, global functional and structural weaknesses linger and weave in and out of our understanding of children’s prolonged unfreedoms. As we think about and act on moving children’s opinions into the public sphere, diversity and community become authentically realized, and more equitable and inclusive norms and values become the prize of local political decision