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Abstract
Plato regards education as a means to achieve justice, both individual justice and social justice.

According to Plato, individual justice can be obtained when each individual develops his or her ability

to the fullest. In this sense, justice means excellence. For the Greeks and Plato, excellence is virtue.

According to Socrates, virtue is knowledge. Thus, knowledge is required to be just. From this Plato

concludes that virtue can be obtained through three stages of development of knowledge:

knowledge of one's own job, self-knowledge, and knowledge of the Idea of the Good. According to

Plato, social justice can be achieved when all social classes in a society, workers, warriors, and

rulers are in a harmonious relationship. Plato believes that all people can easily exist in harmony

when society gives them equal educational opportunity from an early age to compete fairly with each

other. Without equal educational opportunity, an unjust society appears since the political system is

run by unqualified people; timocracy, oligarchy, defective democracy, or tyranny will result. Modern

education in Japan and other East Asian countries has greatly contributed to developing their

societies in economic terms. Nevertheless, education in those countries has its own problems. In

particular the college entrance examination in Japan, Korea, and other East Asian countries caused

serious social injustices and problems: unequal educational opportunity, lack of character education,

financial burden on parents, and so on. Thus, to achieve justice, modern society needs the Platonic

theory education, for Plato's philosophy of education will provide a comprehensive vision to solve

those problems in education. There is also some controversy about the relationship between

education and economics. It is a popular view common in East and West that businesses should

indirectly control or even take over education to economically compete with other nations. However,

Plato disagrees with this notion since business is concerned mainly with profit whereas a true

education is concerned with the common good based upon the rational principle of individual and

social justice.
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1.  D. Social justice is giving what is due to whom it is due.  C. Poor

leadership will lead to wrong decision.  B. The important function of
education is to determine what every individual is by nature capable and fitted
of doing things. Plato’s Philosophy A. Every individual should devote his life
to what is best fitted for him to do.
2. 3.  G. An individual who should be endowed with superior intelligence and
possessed impeccable integrity.  F. Intellectual aristocracy is the rule of
intellectual elite. Plato’s Philosophy E. The physical objects are not
permanent representations of unchanging ideas alone give true knowledge as
they are known by mind.
3. 4. INTRODUCTION Plato was born in Athens in 427 B.C in a wealthy and
influential family. Plato began his philosophical career as a student of
Socrates. When the master died, Plato travelled to Egypt and Italy, studied
with students of Pythagoras, and spent several years advising the ruling
family of Syracuse. Eventually, he returned to Athens and established his own
school of philosophy at the Academy. About 387 BC, Plato founded a school
in Athens, in a grove sacred to the demigod Academus, called the Academy
(which is where we get the word academics from today).
4. 5. THE WORKS RELATED TO EDUCATION Republic is a dialogue which
discusses the education necessary to produce such a society. It is an
education of a strange sort – he called it paideia. Nearly impossible to
translate into modern idiom, paideia refers to the process whereby the
physical, mental and spiritual development of the individual is of paramount
importance. It is the education of the total individual. He discusses early
education mainly in the Republic, written about 385 B.C.E., and in the Laws,
his last work, on which he was still at work at the end of his life.
5. 6. PLATO’S EPISTEMOLOGY He distinguished between the reality
presented to us by our senses sight, touch, taste, sound and smell and the
essence or Form of that reality. In other words, reality is always changing –
knowledge of reality is individual, it is particular, it is knowledge only to the
individual knower, it is not universal.
6. 7.  Knowledge through mind or wisdom – it is the highest degree of
knowledge which includes virtues like truth , goodness and beauty. This
knowledge is idealistic and is based on original thinking. The characteristic of
knowledge is that it is found in the form of universal truth.  An opinion
regarding any object , but this knowledge cannot be relied upon as the views
of every person differs regarding the same object. There are 3 sources of
knowledge: Knowledge obtained from senses i.e. knowledge of objects ,
colours, taste, touch etc. But Plato does not consider this as real knowledge.
7. 8. The highest goal of education, Plato believed, is the knowledge of Good;
to nurture a man to a better human being, it is not merely an awareness of
particular benefits and pleasures.
8. 9. EDUCATION SYSTEM Children enter school at six where they first learn
the three Rs (reading, writing and counting) and then engage with music and
sports.
9. 10. Plato recommended play method at elementary level; student should
learn by doing. And when he/she reaches the higher level of education, his
reason would be trained in the processes of thinking and abstracting. Plato
wanted motivation and interest in learning. He was against the use of force in
education. "Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold
on the mind." According to Plato "Do not then train youths by force and
harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds so that you may
be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the 
TEACHING METHODS genius of each."
10. 11. Plato wanted a place where children love to go and stay there and they
play with things which enhance their education by playing. Plato gave
importance to nursery education, as nursery education plays a vital role in the
education of man and it helps to build his moral character and state of mind
"The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery."
TEACHING METHODS
11. 12. He should be deeply committed to his profession, have high sense of
responsibility and a true role model. Teachers should lead a true moral life.
They should practice what they preach. He must have pleasing personality,
in depth knowledge and professional training.  The teacher must be a
person of high integrity and must possess high self worth.  The teacher is
thus the constant guide of the students.  He is like torch bearer who leads a
man lying in the dark cave, out of the darkness into the bright light of the
outside world.  The educator is considered to have greatest importance.
ROLE OF THE TEACHER In Plato’s plan of education
12. 13. It is created by education. It can survive only on condition that all its
citizens receive an education that enables them to make rational political
decisions. It is up to education to preserve the state intact and to defend it
against all harmful innovations. The aim of education is not personal growth
but service of the state, which is the guarantor of the happiness of its citizens
for as long as they allow it to be the embodiment of justice. Education must be
compulsory for all.   In a nutshell, Plato’s polis (state) is essentially an
educational community.
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Plato’s philosophic thought is developed in agreement to his educational view,
which is mainly presented in two dialogues: The Republic and The Laws.
Having the mental foundation of a perfect State as a goal, Plato proposes,
in The Republic, one has to pay careful attention to the formation of the
guards, whose social role is to defend the city.
The long educational process involving the formation of the guards, has in its
roots two arts fairly valued by the Greeks: music (which also includes poetry)
and gymnastics. Talking about musical education, Plato says the epic and
tragic poems that mention unworthy acts (e.g. revenge) of a divine nature have
to be censured.. As the Athenian philosopher considers that God is essentially
good, those poems are false and harmful to the moral formation of the guards.
When Plato talks about the education of the body, he says one has to take
Spartan military gymnastics as a model, because it is based on physical
exercises and prescribes a severe control over all pleasures. Therefore,
according to Plato, all meals should be collective and frugal, in order to
repress the excesses caused by gluttony.

The great articulation between those two types of education constitutes the
spinal column of the future guards formation. But how to choose, among
them, the one who will be able to rule the city? Plato thinks it is necessary to
submit the students to hard tests capable of evaluating their abilities. This
evaluation includes testing their memory, their resistance to pain and
seduction, and their ability to carry out hard works. The ones approved should
go on with the educational process, learning math and, afterwards, dialectics.
The ones reproved should work for the community, making all kinds of
services: trade, manufacture of consumer goods, etc.

The formation of the guards (and specially of the ruler) demands further
dedication and efforts by the students. In the same way our eyes cannot
directly stare the sun, the source of all light in the visible world, the Good (the
supreme idea governing the supra-sensitive world) cannot be seen if the eyes
of the soul have not been carefully prepared to this goal. This situation,
illustrated by the well-known cave’s allegory, foresees man is able to free
himself from the false knowledge generated by the opinions (doxa), which are
only shadows or poor imitations of true knowledge. However, this rupture
does not occur immediately, because the one accustomed to live in the shades,
when sees the sun for the first time, becomes dazzled and refuses to continue
looking at it. The same occurs in relation to the truths and the idea of the
supreme Good. Therefore, the further studies (math and dialectics) should go
on for many years, in order to reveal the one with a philosophical soul.
According to Werner Jaeger (1995, p. 842-842), Plato thinks that the true
philosophical soul is the one who is not disturbed by the variety of opinions,
aiming at reaching the unity within diversity, i. e., “to observe the
fundamental, universal and immutable image of all things in the world: the
idea.”
The education that reveals, to all citizens, who is the best ruler is a spiritual
ascension: the soul who reaches the top of knowledge is able to rule the city,
but shouldn’t judge himself (herself) as a human being better than all others.
On the contrary, this soul should go back to the shaded world where they live
and, using his/her accurate vision, help them see clearly in the dark.
Therefore, the philosopher-king (or queen) does not think happiness is the
achievement of the ruler’s power in order to be honored for his/her wisdom or
to acquire prestige and wealth; he/she is nor proud of his/her position.
He/She is happy for being the city’s greatest educator, the one who rules in
order to make the citizens better men and women.

In The Laws, probably the last dialogue written by Plato, the ideal State is
founded in Crete. It is also a mental creation and it is called “Magnesia”. If
in The Republic the Athenian philosopher understood that the philosopher-
king’s words could be considered fair and the best representation of the laws,
in “Magnesia” he considers the written laws of great importance, above all due
to their educational content. So, the spirit of the law should involve the
citizen’s soul as a true ethos, i.e., the citizens must respect the laws due to their
role in developing social cohesion, and not because they fear the punishments
prescribed. According to Plato, every law has a transcendental foundation:
God. He is the “norm of the norms, the measure of the measures” (ibid, p.
1341). In The Republic, the supreme universal principle is the Good that
coincides, in The Laws, with God’s mind. God presents himself as the
legislator of the legislators, maintaining an eminent pedagogical relationship
with men: as good fountains always spot out sound water, God always
prescribes what is fair. He is, therefore, the “universal pedagogue” (ibid, p.
1343).
From this point on, Plato begins to pay more attention to the educational
processes extent, i.e., it does not matter so much who education will point out
as capable of ruling, but how many people will be prepared to exercise
patriotism during their lives. Therefore, Plato argues for the public character
of education and that it has to be given in buildings especially built for that
purpose. In these schools, boys and girls should receive the same teaching.
Plato also thinks the educational process should start as soon as possible, and
he suggests that three-to-six-year-old children should play different games,
created by themselves or not. To the older children, Plato recommends playing
the same games, with the same rules, as the one who is accustomed to be ruled
by good principles will not feel, in the future, the need for changing the laws
and the conventions approved by the community.

As education takes a prominent position in the citizen’s formation, its

supervision becomes crucial. An education minister, who must be well
qualified and should not be less than fifty years old, should perform this task.
He should be chosen among the best public servers by a secret election
(carried out in the Apollo’s temple), but the one chosen e can’t be a member of
the Nocturnal Council.

The kind of government proposed in The Laws is a system that combines

aspects of aristocracy and democracy. The state administration is carried out
by different levels of servers, above which is the Nocturnal Council. This
council is composed of the oldest and most honorable servers and is not
elected by citizens. Nevertheless, its members could have been elected for the
public posts occupied before entering the council. The main responsibilities of
the Nocturnal Council are:
1. To develop philosophical studies in order to obtain thorough
understanding of the laws ruling the State.
2. To establish an interchange with philosophers from other cities as to
improve the laws of “Magnesia”
3. To make sure that the philosophical and legal principles the counselors
respect performing their duties are outspread to all citizens.
According to Jaeger (op. cit.), although surprising in some aspects, Plato’s
political and pedagogical proposition presented in The Laws, is not
substantially different from the one presented in The Republic, as the
counselors play roles similar to the one of the guards: they are the supreme
defenders and the main diffusers of Virtue.
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Educating children profoundly affects their lives and influences the life of anyone who comes
into contact with those children. Education provides a foundation for a child to base the rest of
his or her life on. Without a solid education, it becomes impossible for an individual to provide
for themselves and their family. Also, well-educated people can make decisions that benefit
both their own interests and the interests of society as a whole. In this paper, I will address my
personal opinions and philosophy about education. First, I will address the nature of the student.
Next, I will examine the nature of knowledge, followed by the purpose of public education, and
method. Finally, my paper will conclude with a discussion of the curriculum areas that are most
important in elementary school. Additionally, I will relate my views to pragmatism and
progressivism, and to Plato?s teaching, three valuable theories regarding education.

No two students are exactly alike. Nevertheless, they do share one fundamental characteristic --
every student has the ability to learn. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato believed that a
student?s learning ability is determined entirely by genetics. According to Plato, people are
either golds, silvers, or bronzes. The golds are the smartest and the bronzes are the slower
learners. I don?t really agree with this philosophy. Yes, some children are naturally intelligent
and others are not. But natural ability is not the only factor to consider. Students differ on their
level of motivation regarding learning. Some students will settle for a ?C? while others push
themselves to get an ?A.? Others are perfectly happy with failing grades. Motivation, or lack of
it, can be blamed on one of two causes: environment and genetics. Some feel that a child?s
desire to learn is most influenced by their home environment. Genes have also been blamed for
a child?s longing to learn. I feel that both factors play a role in how a child approaches
education. In a home where education is strongly emphasized, a child is probably going to want
to learn. However, this is not always true. Sometimes, a child just does not want to learn, which
can be a result of their genetic make-up. In other cases, some children are raised in homes
where education is the last thing on the parent?s mind. These children might go on to be the
most ambitious of their classes. Again, this is more easily explained with genetics than
environment. Children are a complex mixture of both environment and genetics. The same can
be said for ?good versus bad.? Most children are a combination of both, albeit some will lean
more one way than another.

Education is the process by which knowledge is transmitted from teacher to student. When
discussing education one must consider the nature of knowledge. Is knowledge absolute,
meaning it is true forever, or is it relative, meaning that knowledge will change as times and
people change? I believe that knowledge is absolute. When something is proven true, it is true
for everyone, no matter what location they inhabit. For example, it is true everywhere that a
bowling ball weighs more than a feather. It does not matter if the student learning this lives in
Japan or if they live in Scotland. Unlike relative knowledge, which can differ from person to
person, absolute knowledge is true for everyone.
Public education is designed to broaden the minds of students. Pragmatism is a philosophy
which states that education should be used to help create a better society by producing
educated people who become responsible citizens. These citizens become the tax payers and
voters that benefit everyone. I agree with this philosophy. Educated people can improve society
by creating new policies that help everyone. People who are not educated have a harder time
making knowledgeable decisions that affect themselves and others. Education is important
because it betters the life of the student. With an education, a person can get a better job. They
also have better decision making skills. As a teacher, I hope to make a good impression on the
lives of my students. I want to help them learn and grow. I hope that through my teaching,
students feel that they have gained something valuable. In my classroom, I want the children to
feel safe and happy. I hope to see each child improve in their schoolwork and in their social
development.

In education, one must work with other people. Whenever a job involves more than one person,
ethics become an issue. A teacher must always consider what behaviors are appropriate. I do
not believe that teachers should be held to an unattainably high moral standard. Teachers
should be allowed to date and go to the occasional social event. I think that a teacher?s private
life becomes an issue when it affects their performance at school. It is acceptable for an
educator to have a beer at home, but if they drink in the students? presence it becomes
completely improper.

Ethics are also an issue concerning the other teachers with whom an educator works with. It is
wrong to gossip about colleagues, especially, if one hopes to earn as better job, or a pay raise
by cutting down their fellow workers. It is also unethical to discuss things a student may have
confided in you as a teacher. Unless, of course, the student is suffering abuse or plans to
commit suicide, then it is crucial to provide information about the child?s situation. I think it is
acceptable for a teacher to accept gifts from children, especially around the holidays. However,
this cannot affect the way the teacher treats that child. The same is true for gifts from parents. A
related problem has to do with preferential treatment for athletes. Athletes are students too, and
so should be treated just the same as the rest of the class.

There are several different teaching methods including discussion and lecture. Socrates and
Plato encouraged using discussion to teach children. I agree with this, because many young
children do not have the listening skills and attention spans to sit through a lecture. Additionally,
if the children get to talk and offer their ideas, they will be more likely to learn. Group activities
work in a similar way because the children are actively involved in the learning process.

In order to have a successful classroom, the children must be disciplined. Many times, this can
be accomplished by using lots of positive reinforcement, so that the child knows what is
expected of them. Sometimes, by just saying a child?s name, they realize what they are doing
wrong. And it may become necessary to send the child out of the classroom so that they can no
longer disrupt everyone?s learning. Children should be told the rules on the first day of school,
so that they will know what is expected of them. It is crucial for the teacher to be consistent and
fair when disciplining students. If two children are screaming, they should both be reprimanded.
I want to become an elementary educator. I believe that two major subject areas are important
in elementary education. The first is reading because it is the basis for all other subjects. A child
cannot learn about science, if they cannot read a book about science. Even when learning
mathematics, a child still has to know how to read because they have to read and understand
the directions. Art and music are also important, and are built upon reading skills. Social skills
are the second most important area. These are not traditional subject areas, but they are crucial
to a child?s development. Children who do not learn how to share in elementary school will
grow up to be selfish and inconsiderate adults. In school, a child learns how to work with others.
These social skills are essential because they will profoundly affect the rest of the child?s life.
Children who possess strong social skills can deal better with problems and will eventually
become better workers and be happier than adults who never learned social lessons.

In conclusion, I believe that education is the foundation of society. All students can learn,
although some will be more excited about it than others. Unlike Plato, I believe that most
students, with a few exceptions, are on equal footing when it comes to learning. Each student
will gain valuable knowledge that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. Knowledge is an
absolute concept that is true for every student. Pragmatism states that public education exists to
better society, and I agree with that. Education produces stronger citizens, who are willing to
work and provide tax dollars. As a teacher, I hope to help my students learn more about the
world around them, and to help them recognize their own potential. I hope my students learn,
grow, and develop both academically and socially. As a teacher, I will behave ethically by
obeying moral standards of right and wrong. In my classroom, my students will learn reading
and social skills helping them to become successful, strong adults. Education benefits both the
student and the community at large because the children in my class will go on to become the
doctors, lawyers, and leaders of the future. Educated people will become strong and productive
members if society who are more likely to succeed than to be troublemakers. By becoming a
teacher, I want to help my individual students, the community, and the world.
Plato on education. In his Republic we find just about the
most influential early account of education. His interest in
soul, dialogue and in continuing education continue to
provide informal educators with rich insights.
Plato (428 – 348 BC) Greek philosopher who was the pupil of Socrates and
the teacher of Aristotle – and one of the most influential figures in ‘western’
thought. He founded what is said to be the first university – his Academy
(near Athens) in around 385 BC. Plato’s early works (dialogues) provide
much of what we know of Socrates (470 – 399BC). In these early dialogues
we see the use of the so called Socratic method. This is a question and
answer form of arguing with an ‘expert’ on one side and a ‘searcher’ on the
other. In the dialogues, the questioning of the expert by the ‘searcher’ often
exposes gaps in the reasoning. Part of this can be put down to Plato’s dislike
of the Sophists (particularly as teachers of rhetoric) and his concern that
teachers should know their subject.
The ‘middle period’ of Plato’s work is also characterised by the use of
dialogues in which Socrates is the main speaker – but by this point it is
generally accepted that it is Plato’s words that are being spoken. We see the
flowering of his thought around knowledge and the Forms, the Soul
(psyche and hence psychology), and political theory (see, especially, The
Republic).

The ‘late period’ dialogues are largely concerned with revisiting the
metaphysical and logical assumptions of his ‘middle period’.
One of the significant features of the dialogical (dialectic) method is that it
emphasizes collective, as against solitary, activity. It is through the to and
fro of argument amongst friends (or adversaries) that understanding grows
(or is revealed). Such philosophical pursuit alongside and within a full
education allows humans to transcend their desires and sense in order to
attain true knowledge and then to gaze upon the Final Good (Agathon).
Perhaps the best known aspect of Plato’s educational thought is his
portrayal of the ideal society in The Republic. He set out in some detail , the
shape and curriculum of an education system (with plans for its
organization in The Laws). In the ideal state, matters are overseen by the
guardian class – change is to be avoided (perfection having already been
obtained), and slaves, and craftsmen and merchants are to know their
place. It is the guardian class who are educated, merchants and craftsmen
serve apprenticeships and slaves…

Plato’s relevance to modern day educators can be seen at a number of

levels. First, he believed, and demonstrated, that educators must have a
deep care for the well-being and future of those they work with. Educating
is a moral enterprise and it is the duty of educators to search for truth and
virtue, and in so doing guide those they have a responsibility to teach. As
Charles Hummel puts it in his excellent introductory essay (see below), the
educator, ‘must never be a mere peddler of materials for study and of
recipes for winning disputes, nor yet for promoting a career.

Second, there is the ‘Socratic teaching method’. The teacher must know his
or her subject, but as a true philosopher he or she also knows that the limits
of their knowledge. It is here that we see the power of dialogue – the joint
exploration of a subject – ‘knowledge will not come from teaching but from
questioning’.

Third, there is his conceptualization of the differing educational

requirements associated with various life stages. We see in his work the
classical Greek concern for body and mind. We see the importance of
exercise and discipline, of story telling and games. Children enter school at
six where they first learn the three Rs (reading, writing and counting) and
then engage with music and sports. Plato’s philosopher guardians then
follow an educational path until they are 50. At eighteen they are to
undergo military and physical training; at 21 they enter higher studies; at
30 they begin to study philosophy and serve the polis in the army or civil
service. At 50 they are ready to rule. This is a model for what we now
describe as lifelong education (indeed, some nineteenth century German
writers described Plato’s scheme as ‘andragogy’). It is also a model of the
‘learning society’ – the polis is serviced by educators. It can only exist as a
rational form if its members are trained – and continue to grow.
Key texts:
Plato (1955) The Republic, London: Penguin ((translated by H. P. D. Lee).
Biographical material: