Analysis of Plato's Idea of Education

The whole range of the educational system would be in part physical, in part intellectual, and in part moral. If a man cannot withstand moral temptation, then he might sacrifice the interest of the society in order to satisfy his own interests. The process of learning, was suggested to be in the form of discussion between students and teachers. Plato’s idea of education was primarily intended for those who were to be statesmen. What made him to emphasise the statesmen more was to avoid blind leaders; because these statesmen will be given a state, and if they are not educated will lead the country or the state into a terrible situation.

The whole process of learning requires teachers and students; teachers are the ones who know the subject matter to be taught. Following this statement one can realise that because every one possesses the power to learn in his soul, what is needed is to turn our soul in a proper way that is to prepare a good environment for learning. It is shown that the more you move up the more you acquire knowledge. On the other hand, it is showing that the power to learn is present in anyone’s soul and that the instrument with which each learns, is like an eye that cannot be turned around from darkness to light without turning the whole body.

However, according to Plato, education is a matter of conversion. i.e. a complete turn around from the world of appearances to the world of the reality. The conversion of the souls is not to put the power of sight in the soul’s eye, which already has it, but to insure that, instead of looking in the wrong direction, it is turned the way it ought to be. Education is not what some people declare it to be, namely, putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into a blind eye. Knowledge is like vision in that it requires an organ capable in receiving it. Just as the prisoner had to turn his whole body around in order that his eyes could see the light instead of the darkness, so also it is necessary for the entire soul to turn away from the deceptive world of change and appetite that causes a blindness of the soul.

Plato also sees education as medium through which to ensure that the habit and aspirations of the old generation are transmitted to the younger and then presumably to the next one after that. Plato gave great importance to education. According to Plato, education is the initial acquisition of virtue by the child, when the feelings of pleasure and affection, pain and hatred, that well up in his soul are channelled in the right courses before he can understand the reason why. Education then, is a matter of correctly disciplined feelings of pleasure and pain.