GREATEST THOUGHTS FROM PLATO: We Need Better Childhood

 Plato proposed that our lives go wrong in large part because we almost never give ourselves time to think carefully and logically enough about our plans. And so we end up with the wrong values, careers and relationships. Plato wanted to bring order and clarity to our minds.

Families try their best. And sometimes children strike lucky. Their parents are well balanced, good teachers, reliably mature and wise. But pretty often parents transmit their confusions and failings to their children.

Photo by Bret Field

Plato thought that bringing up children well was one of the most difficult (and most needed) skills.

He was acutely sympathetic to the child who is held back by the wrong home environment, where parents are absent or not active in their parental roles.

But the beautiful question today is:–

-        As parents are we well balanced, good teachers, reliably mature and wise.

-        Or are we the one’s holding back our children by creating the wrong home environment.

-        Or we have found creative and more effective ways to transmit our confusions and failings to our children.

So Plato proposed that many children would in fact be better off if they could take their vision of life not from their parents but from wise guardians, paid for by the state. He proposed that a sizeable share of the next generation should be brought up by people more qualified than their own parents.

The more complex question is this:

-        Are our teachers more qualified not only in academic sense but also in service delivery - (the art of teaching and transferring knowledge to our children)

-        Or are our teachers wise guardians or they are a creative and more effective way to transmit confusions and failings to our children.

 Greatest Thinkers: The School of Life