Hall of Fame

Plato (428-348 BC)

It is through Plato that we know Socrates, but Plato is no mere mouthpiece. All western philosophy has been described as ‘footnotes to Plato’. Like Socrates, he believed in the power of questioning as a method of teaching. Indeed, his dialogues do not feature Plato himself. They illustrate by example his view that the learner must learn to think for themselves through dialogue.

Plato’s Academy

Plato’s Academy is thought by many to have been the first University. He founded The Academy in 387 B.C. a philosophical school that became very famous due to the Neoplatonists, and remained in use until A.D. 526, when it was finally closed down by emperor Justinian. Having run for 900 years it rivals any current western university for longevity. Above its door were the words Let no one unversed in geometry enter here, and he did see mathematics as important training for the mind, along with the idea of proof and clear hypotheses.

Educational utopia

It is in The Republic and The Laws, Plato’s description of his utopia, that we hear most about his views on education. Indeed, his views are laid down in these texts in exacting detail. Plato’s political utopia would have few followers today, except among dictators and oligarchs. His views on education, however, have some lasting value.

The Greek ideal of body and mind is seen in an educational context with a structured approach to education across one’s entire lifetime.

School, he proposes, should start at six with the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. He recommends censoring fiction at this age, especially poetry and drama, arguing that they can cloud a child’s mind and reduce their ability to make judgments and deal with the real world. He also thought that they may be tempted to emulate some of the immoral behaviour in such texts. More than this, he thought that fiction could lead to self-deception giving learners a false-sense of themselves. A strict curriculum is recommended in early years.

The educational system should also be designed to determine the abilities of individuals and training provided to apply to the strengths of their abilities. In other words, a severe form of streaming.

Music and sports should then be brought into the curriculum with more serious attention paid to military training at the age of 18. At 21, higher educational goals are introduced, with philosophy at 30. It is only at the age of 50 that the educated person should be allowed to rule – the philosopher king.

We must remember that Plato does don’t see this as education for all, merely a minority destined to rule. On the other hand, his appreciation that people learn differently over time has been taken up by those who see ‘andragogy’ as a theoretical construct. He does see the mind developing over time with age as an important factor in education. There is also a sense of lifelong learning.

Conclusion

Plato’s lasting contribution to educational theory probably lies in his writing of the Socratic dialogues, however these represent both the thoughts of Socrates as well as his own ideas.

As well as promoting mathematics as a foundation skill he founded a great Academy, the forerunner of the modern University. Theoretically, he mapped out a developmental educational theory that rested on the Greek ideal of mind and body but saw education as developing at different ages. His ideas were to be revived by the humanists during the Renaissance.

Bibliography

Plato (1955) The Republic, London: Penguin (translated by H. P. D. Lee).

Hare, R. M. (1989) Plato, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Succinct introduction.