Education, extremism and exemption from basic morality

Are there things schools can do to build pupils’ resilience to extremism? The UK ‘Prevent duty’ assumes there are, but schools are poorly served by existing government advice. Here I offer a cautious defence of the idea that the acquisition of extremist beliefs and attitudes can be forestalled by educational means. I begin by sketching, and modifying, Quassim Cassam’s family resemblance account of the concept of extremism. I then focus in on what I take to be a core ideological commitment of extremism: the belief that there is an ideal so worthy as to exempt those who pursue it from the requirements of basic morality. I argue, first, that it is permissible for educators to forestall the exemption-from-basic-morality belief and, second, that it is possible for them to do so.