Plato has an in-depth look on education from the way that we normally would look at. There are are people like the “teachers” and “students” but he didn’t really call them that. The way that he described it was that the “teachers” are the people with understanding and the “students” are the ones that are trying to understand. Plato also showed that the people who want to teach must have a passion for it. In some ways, you may see someone be the “teacher” and the “student”. But according to Plato, that can’t be the case. Not everyone has that passion, that drive to show everyone their knowledge on the course. But in the case of a teacher becoming a philosopher. They will stop being a student by the age of 50. It was shown/stated that knowledge comes from the questions that you ask. From the time you are 50, you know the limit to what you know about your subject and in order to do that you need to ask the right questions to know what you don’t know. But the knowledge that they knew from asking or what they know already, can be taught to someone that is asking those questions.
The purpose of education to me is to know the unknown. I 100% agree with Plato. What Plato said on what education is the true meaning of what it is. But we have never looked it that way. If we take a deep look to what it is then we will see how correct Plato is. We just looked it as “teacher” and “student”. But sometimes even the “teachers” don’t know the answers to some of the questions that the “students” ask. That’s where the “teacher” becomes the “student” by asking the same question that was asked to them to get the knowledge to then share that same knowledge that was just found. In modern day society, no one is a true “teacher” in Plato’s eyes. Even a professor can’t really reach the same knowledge as a philosopher in his days. Professors or doctors of a degree still ask questions because they want to be an expert of their field. Education as a whole is learning and teacher. People say that when you teach something, you get a better understanding of what you are teaching because you can see the how things work. You can only really teach something if you yourself understands in completely. But by getting a better understanding of from teaching something, you are also learning. It goes both ways when a question has come up and you don’t know it.
Devindra,
I really like that you emphasized the idea that “knowledge comes from the questions you ask.” This is so important! I think sometimes students 7 teachers think about education as something passive– something to be received. When really, the deepest learning comes from the questions we have and our curiosity!
Yes, your comments about the “mash-up” of teacher and student is excellent. Sometimes the teacher becomes the student and the student becomes the teacher!