Nicolás Rodríguez León

Historical foundations of education

Summary no. 1 : Plato

Amongst the most relevant thoughts that Plato has left to Western civilization is the concept of justice
and its consequences for societies´ operation, which shaped the governance system and structure. Plato
affirms that the State reflects the soul, and because the justice is inherent to the soul, a just State is one
where its citizens comply with the roles assigned by the own virtues. These virtues constitute the
backbone of society hierarchy, as three types of citizens are distinguished based on the virtues that each
soul has. These separation results in a clear structure of society based on Aristocrats, guardians, and
artisan citizens, with each one of them developing essential activities highly valuable for society.

To be able to identify the virtues each soul has, Plato affirms that a school system provided by the
government, free of access (for men) should be institutionalized as a central policy. I personally think
that education should be universal and with high quality standards. The school system provides many of
the tools that will help students potentiate their abilities and Plato has, more than 2,000 years ago,
stated that education is the mechanism that converts individuals into productive members of society.
The idea of citizen classification by one´s abilities and virtues is by no means radical if society ensures
that all members have all their needs covered (health, housing and of course education) and have as
well egalitarian opportunities in their personal development. Unfortunately, this is not the case in
Colombia and most of the world, where money dictates one´s privileges and access to quality education,
resulting in a pursual of a meaningless academic title that is not a direct reflect of all the potential that
individuals could have.

Questions:

 As shown, Plato states that virtues (skills in this context) come from the soul, the inner being of
each individual. What if our context and life experiences are essential in our personal
development and virtues acquisitions? Are they corrupting us, or are they cultivating us?
 Could it be that specialization and segmentation result in machine-citizens that never exploited
other faces of the human essence? Isn´t integral knowledge more capable to fulfill all human
desires in the earthly world?
The purpose of Plato's philosophy is to reach the truth. This truth can be found inside each of us, but has
been erased at birth and can only be reached by acquiring knowledge through discourse. In contrast
with his opposition (the Sophists) Plato believed that there was only one absolute truth (the Form of
Good) and that a good person (one fit to become a philosopher-king of the polis) was educated in all
areas of knowledge. He also believed that there were intellectually gifted people, who were fit from
birth to become a part of politics, the rest of the population was either suited for war or to become part
of the workforce. Plato's philosophy of education relies on the fact that certain people have certain skills
and that there are some that are not suited for academic life. With the cost of education on the rise, I
consider Plato’s ideas and think that educators should encourage young students to learn a craft,
instead of investing in pricey universities with no guarantee of meaningful work or mental development.
Plato would certainly agree with the idea, as he would consider that most of today’s students are not
suited for academic life (which we can compare to the development of philosopher kings). But I feel that
his ideas laid the foundation for society to consider the pursuit of technical knowledge and
craftsmanship as a disregard for intellectual knowledge and therefore inferior