Education Is a Pertinent Necessity - Essay Example

Monica Phung Phil 107 Bernard K Swanson 10-10-14 Education Education is a pertinent necessity for both parents and their children. Moreover, it is aglobal responsibility for all governments to ensure that education is a basic right accorded to its citizens. In this regard, education is a pertinent issue of discussion. Evidently, there are all different educational systems across the various countries of the world. Furthermore, each family has their own prescriptive code of education that they use in teaching their children. Indeed, the methods of teaching children vary with some bordering on the extreme. For example, some parents believe that for effective teaching and discipline of a child, he or she must be subjected to corporal punishment. This belief is justified on the notion that teaching children can be compared to the art of molding pottery which requires tools in order to achieve the desired shape. Therefore, similar restrictions and disciplinary measures ought to be applied to a child in order to mould his or her behaviors and thoughts in becoming a better person. For other parents, they believe that children should be left to decide on where they belong in terms of aptitude for learning. Therefore, children have the capacity to find out and learn for themselves the essential education needs they require to become better people. On the other hand, according to Socrates and Plato, they equally espouse a similar ideology pertaining to education. In this regard, they both believe the primary motive of educating a child is to make them just and assisting in building a just society or city. In this regard, both philosophers contend that educating young children is important since they are the guardians of the city. In this regard, I am expressly in support of the teaching methods and form of education espoused by Plato and Socrates. However, there are several teaching methods that I am opposed to. Foremost, the physical punishment meted out on a child is not right and equally forbidden by law in progressive countries such as the United States of America. Evidently, the corporal punishment meted out on a child is a form of child abuse. In addition, it is not possible to use tools and rules in the name of restricting children and disciplining them. This is because each child is unique in their behaviors and thought process. On the issue of different thought processes, it is good as long as it satisfies the ultimate goal of being just. This notion is further supported by Plato as he indicated in his work that each individual have their own place in the city and that all people were uniquely different. Furthermore, he theorized that each individual had different roles to perform in the city in terms of work. In this regard, he stated that there were three categories of people namely, the rulers, soldiers and the rest as citizens. According to Socrates, he alludes to the inherent differences in people when he states that everyone was molded or created in the same way although the material used is different. In this regard, he states that ‘but as god was molding for you, for those of you who fitted to rule he used gold as part of the mixture in the process of generation, while for the auxiliaries he mixed silver, and iron and bronze for the farmer and the craftsman” (Plato, 119). Consequently, each person has their own place and inherent role in the city and thus have to work hard to address the tenant needs that god gave them. However in relation to those that wish to be progress to a higher level, Socrates states that ‘because you are all akin to each other, though for the most part you will have children like yourselves, there are times when silver offspring will be generated from gold, or gold from silver and so on with the other permutation.” The implication deduced from this statement is that in the event that someone is born within the ruler family and wishes to become an artist, he or she is not denied the opportunity to do so because it is god’s will. In this regard, each individual has their own ways of thinking and behavior. Plato and Socrates equally content that children should not be only left to grow without direction. On the contrary, they need to be guided and given a sense of direction through education which will assist them realizing their ultimate potential. In this regard, education needs to be imparted at an early age for the child to achieve gradual and holistic growth. The reason for imparting knowledge at an early age is because it is the period at which children are still malleable and have a higher retention capacity depending on the level of exposure. According to Plato, he states that, ‘a young person is not capable of telling the difference between what is allegory and what is not, and whatever someone accepts as one of his beliefs at that age tends to be hard to eradicate or do anything about it” (Plato, 71). In this regard, narration of tales to children should be carefully written and structured in a way that assists in shaping the children’s soul. After the music training, Socrates said that good soul have to have a good body to corporate “ that a good soul through its excellence makes for a body that is as good as its capable of being.” (Plato, 103). Therefore, children have to take gymnastic education which is by drinking and eating healthy food, also need to do exercise, physical training to from the body that is as fit as it needed. Socrates also say that the gymnastic is mainly to prevent people from getting ill and sick, so that the medicine is not need in the city and its only needed for those easily heal illness not for to keep the unable to work alive. I totally agree with Socrates. Socrates equally delved in to gymnastic education. Evidently, Socrates is not in support of a complex gymnastic routine. On the contrary, he states that a good body is the product of a good soul. Moreover, he states that a healthy body is equally maintained by a healthy intellect (Plato, 403). In this regard, he reiterates that a healthy body is achieved at the youthful stage through moderate drinking and eating as well as maintaining a simple physical regiment. Plato reiterates that gymnastic education is important in its role in preventing the body from illnesses and boosting of the immune system. According to Socrates, medicine is only an option for curing illnesses that are easily fixed and should not be used as a means of maintaining people that are unable work (Plato, 406). Subsequent to the discussion on medicine by Socrates, he equally delves in the suitable personality of judges. In this regard, he states that similar to a properly educated guardian, an educated judger is comparable to a later learner on the precincts of injustice (Plato, 409). The notion here is that even though the judge is not personally exposed to the injustice, he or she is able to discern injustice due to its foreignness. In this regard, the capacity to differentiate between bad and good irrespective of direct exposure to the crime is the required result of education by the guardian. The philosophers to kings’ education is another version discussed in Plato’s Republic. In the text, it is indicated that upon Socrates convincing Glaucon on the advantages of move away from the cave and pursuing to become a philosopher, Socrates resumes to an advanced approach in political issues. In this regard, Socrates states that good guardians should not allow themselves to be prisoners or even being selfish philosophers that reside outside the cave. On the contrary, Socrates state the good guardian should move away from the cave and pursue education through exemplary education. Afterwards, a good guardian should go back to the cave to educate others and exercise control or rule similar to a king (Plato, 519). Socrates further states that the education of philosophers to kings should be relevant and applicable like that for men ready for war since they are ‘warriors in the making’ (Plato, 521). In this regard, Socrates offers examples of education to be pursued here such as the study of cubes geometry, calculations or numbers in mathematics. Socrates indicates the usefulness of mathematics not only for its practical nature but equally its abstractness that affect the intellectual application of students. According to Socrates, he states that calculation causes the soul to have an upward progression and initiates internal dialogue within the soul (Plato, 525). Consequently, education of concepts that are elusive and complex drives an individual to learn issues that are perfect and complex. Plato equally emphasizes the importance of studying dialectics. In this regard, he believes that a person learns how to advance personal accounts and an educative understanding through reasoning that employs both questioning and answering. This consequently helps an individual to identify their intrinsic value and the extrinsic value of the world. Socrates equally reiterates that learners of mathematical education and dialectics ought to possess presentable nature. In this regard, the learners are supposed to be noble, courageous, fast learners, good looking and lovers of hard work (Plato, 355). Socrates also indicates that education of the philosophers to kings’ version should be formally presented as voluntary play. In this regard, Socrates states that force should not be employed in the educational training of children. According to Socrates, gymnastic education reduces in effectiveness among learners once they attain the age of twenty. At this point, there is a selection of the best students who are then subjected to learn a synopsis of the overall studies and assessing their inter-relations. Afterwards, at the age of thirty, there is a selection of those that are exemplary in war, studies and other responsibilities. They are consequently subjected to a dialectics test in order to assess who has accomplished the philosophers to kings’ education. Reference Rosen, Stanley. Platos Republic: a study. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. 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