Amongst all the important philosophers who thought about education, Plato was probably the most important. He visualized education to be the key to create and sustain his dialogue, the Republic. He was also known to advocate extreme measures such as raising a kid away from the mother’s care and raising them as wards of the state. He suggested that great care must be taken while differentiating the children
from each other in order to make sure that the educated children will take care if the less fortunate in the future.
According to Plato, talent was distributed equally among everyone in an un-genetic manner. This implied that talent could be found in all the children, no matter where they were born. This belief of his moves everyone away from the idea of aristocracy. He only states that those children that are fit for this kind of education must be worked upon properly because they must assume the role of the ruling class later in their lives. This played an important role in forming a public education system which provided education to only a few people whose capability to learn was innate. Today’s grading and tracking system in the Western world is said to have been derived by that very same idea of Plato.
Many scholars believe that Plato must be considered as the founder of the democratic philosophies of education keeping in mind that Plato leaned towards meritocracy and autocracy. Plato’s democratic educational system is very different compared to the contemporary American democratic system. The current American system says that some and only a chosen some must be educated completely while the others may become sidelined.
Some of Plato’s writings included ideas like compulsory education until 18 years of age for guardian class, two compulsory years of military training and then higher education if possible. He also wrote that girls and buys of the same age should receive equal and similar education. He believed that the subjects taught to the boys were wonderful subjects that everyone, regardless of the gender or class, should have the privilege to learn. These ideas were the ones that constituted the Platonic philosophy of education.
Description: Plato was one of the most well known philosophers in his time who gave some amount of thought on the system of education for the youth. Therefore, he must be considered as an important contributor to the modern educational system that is still implied in the west.