The Teachings of Plato About Child Education

Thesis: Plato’s theory holds that children should be taught only factual information, and explains why it is important to do this from an early age.

Plato’s Appeal: Child educators must not portray humans as having the same powers as gods because this would remove moral authority from the gods.  

When Plato was writing his dialogues on “The Greater Part of the Story Current Today we Shall Have to Reject” he was advocating his theory that children must be taught facts right from the earliest stage in life. Information given to children at early age has a lasting impression on their minds and characters, therefore it has to be censored for factual accuracy and not tainted with myth and fiction. Right from the beginning, they should be trained in good citizenship, founded on good moral character (Barnet and Bedau, p. 490). Plato’s theory holds that children should be taught only factual information, and explains why it is important to do this from an early age.

Children’s education should start with the shaping of the mind and character before the physical body, which was considered fundamental in child development if they were to develop a healthy reasoning capacity (Matthews and Mullin). Plato considered it important for a child to start thinking factually and positively even before they started physical training, because then they understood the reason and importance of physical training (Barnet and Bedau, p.490). In today’s society children are initially engaged in mental and moral education, just as Plato envisaged, and later on they are given physical training, which is less rigorous by Greek standards.

Greek children were taught literature using poetry and drama, and Plato agrees that stories are an important tool in training of the mind, but he disagrees that such stories should be fictitious. Greek teaching was based partly on facts and fiction or myths for the most part. Myths, which were about giants, supernatural beasts and gods, were mostly told in half-truths that were meant to shape the children’s moral behavior rather than give them factual knowledge. In his time, children were told stories of wars among the gods and with giants and beasts. Gods represented the highest moral standards, while giants and beasts represented forces of evil, but wars were fictional and meant to scare children into following a moral path (Matthews and Mullin). Modern day children are exposed to literature in many forms and media, and these media are awash with factual truths, untruths, myths and legends. For example in a bid to check their moral activities, children are taught from adventure story books about magical powers like the witch who captures Hansel and Gretel when they were eating a house made of gingerbread and cake, or the fantasy adventures of Alice in the place called Wonderland. This is supposed to trick children into believing the lies and instil fear of venturing into strange places or unknown places. Some television programs trick children that they can do supernatural things, like jump off a 20foot ladder in a wrestling match, or kick a bad guy through the roof on the tenth floor. Such manner of teaching, according to Plato, is not the moral way to educate the child.

Giants were fairy tale super beings and therefore untrue, while gods were real supreme beings and therefore true. According to Greek myths, gods represented the forces of good, but poets and writers often portrayed them as having good and evil powers at the same time. Clearly these are misguided thoughts and teachings and they do not promote good citizenship. Children cannot form an impression of the goodness of gods if the gods are depicted as war mongers, giant fighters, adulterers and doing other evil acts. Plato was concerned that such misguided knowledge and myths created uncultured citizens, and therefore use of myths is not the correct way to train the children’s minds. Such myth becomes fact in the mind of a child (Matthews and Mullin). According to Plato, it was wrong and untrue to depict men as contenders to godly powers, because it debased the supremacy of the gods, and therefore children should not be taught such notions. Teaching children such stories is to advocate quarrelsomeness and anarchy instead of declaring the vice a worst kind of evil. Children are unable to distinguish between symbolism and fact, and the impressions they form last into adulthood. Consequently, adults must ensure the stores they impart on the children shall encourage them to attain the highest standards in character. When challenged to take up the writing role, Plato claimed to be a statesman, writing about state, and therefore not competent to write stories (Barnet and Bedau, p. 494). He however prescribes that writers of stories stick to factual stories.

            Plato suggests that adults should lead by example when he says that initially children must be taught the moral or virtual of citizenship. It begins with clarifying to children when a story is true or untrue, and whether it has any teaching or it is purely entertainment or just a myth. In Plato’s view, the initial education of the child must be censored in order to build moral character of the child (Barnet and Bedau , p. 493). 

In answer to Adeimantus’s query about whether poetry should be factual, and the role of poetry in educating children, Plato asserts that poetry is allegorical in nature, and that it should be left to poets, not scholars like them. Poetry and drama should however be truthful and respectful of the gods.  As was the case then, modern arts, poetry and drama are also symbolic and not factual, and this must be made clear to the young audiences (Matthews and Mullin). Plato further states that such poetry or drama must not misrepresent facts, for example, it must still represent gods as being full of goodness and they do not harm humans, instead poetry should teach gods are or good while evil forces cause harm. The fact the gods’ are for goodness should be put in the statute books of the state according to Plato, who was a religious person. It is not morally right nor correct to insinuate that gods can be both good and evil, as was depicted by the poet Homer in an epic about the god Zeus holding out two jars, one containing good fate and another containing evil. And that to some men he gives a mixture from the two jars, and to other men he gives a portion of the evil omen. Another story about the gods, which vexed Plato was that Zeus and Athena dishonored a treaty. Plato opined that a piece of drama by Aeschylus depicted the sufferings of the god Niobe be forbidden. Depictions of the Trojan wars are tales of physical conflict between man and god, and they reduce the gods’ supremacy to that of an ironman or wrestler. When man is punished for evil deeds, it should not be blamed on the gods, but rather it should be seen as chastising by the gods. It is blasphemous to blame the gods for evil deeds (Barnet and Bedau, p. 496). It is noted that today many states ignore faiths and beliefs and allow blasphemy and this leads to erosion of the morals of children. When people revere the gods, they become good citizens.

Works cited

Barnet, S., & Bedau, H. (2005). Current issues and enduring questions. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

 Matthews, Gareth, and Amy Mullin. ‘The Philosophy Of Childhood’. Plato.stanford.edu. N.p., 2002. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.