Egalitarianism and the Gifted Child

Egalitarianism in education faces the charge that it excessively limits the academic development of gifted children. Call it the giftedness challenge. Following an elucidation of the challenge, a novel defense of egalitarianism is presented. The paper begins with the formulation of the principle of Equal Distribution of Educational Goods, which calls for the equal distribution of knowledge, understanding and skills among children, and which is particularly vulnerable to the giftedness challenge. I then propose that egalitarians can answer the giftedness challenge if they supplement Equal Distribution of Educational Goods with a further egalitarian principle, namely, Equal Distribution of Educational Burdens.