One More Time: How Do You Get Both Equality and Excellence in Education?

The tension between egalitarian goals and excellence in education comes to the fore when democratic societies attempt to educate their citizens. Rather than resolving the tension in Favor of either side of the polarity, a theory is advanced whereby both equality and excellence may be seen not only as compatible, but as requiring each other. The argument is made that "equal education" achieves real equality only through excellence. At the same time, and particularly in democracies, educational excellence demands equality as its foundation. Finally, the mutually supportive interrelationship between equality and excellence is adumbrated in a framework drawing upon perennial philosophical views of the nature of freedom.