As we've seen, men as renowned as Cicero and Benjamin Franklin believed the primary purpose of education was to build character and virtue in pupils. Moral education of this kind is likely to be palatable to most people – at least when a society enjoys general homogeneity in its values.

But there are reasons to be skeptical (and wary) of the values-driven education that we increasingly see in America's public schools today, where many students are being taught a controversial social justice curriculum from a young age.

An illustration of such a curriculum can be found in Aldous Huxley's brilliant novel Brave New World.

The Longest River in Africa

Early in the novel, we see that the Directors were able to build their wonderful world of conformity and docility through a scientific breakthrough: sleep-teaching (or hypnopaedia).