Importance Of Education In Allegory Of The Cave

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Assignment Using a Source for "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato
INTRODUCTION
In the story of "Allegory of the Cave", Plato illustrates his concerning on humanity and education. By the meaning of "Allegory of the Cave", we understand the effect of education on us. Most of the people ignore the importance of teaching, and they seek to learn the knowledge of the book or other materials. Therefore, they don 't care the truth or ignore it, which leads the truth far from us. "Indeed, the very principle that education ought to be more concerned with drawing out various human potentials than with only depositing information into students owes its origin to Plato" (Burch 7). To improve people 's educational level, we should realize that what …show more content…

However the world is saturated with delusions and misconceptions which have us deviate from our goal, making it difficult for us to attain the knowledge of good like those prisoners in the cave. It’s inevitable for us to be deceived, due to the restrictions and confinements of our world. However some wise kind of us was able to break through the curfew in some aspects and realized something truer than those that we beheld. For those who acquired the ascent of soul, as described in the Allegory of Cave, “do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them?” (Plato 3). Or as Homer said, “Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner” (Plato …show more content…

What kind of experience can be called an education? Is it the practice of stuffing knowledge or information into the brains of students? Or is it the activity in which the master shows their apprentices the proper skills to make delicate works? People are prone to accumulate possessions. For some, they stock up substantial materials. But others prefer to possess knowledge. There were many sophists who proclaimed themselves to be omniscient and gave instructions to anyone who sought for their help. As we have noticed, “certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes” (Plato 4). Education can only be done when the restrictions are removed and the latent potentials of students are provoked. In the soul of everyone there already exists the power and capacity of learning. Education is to activate those powers and capacities so as to complete the ascent from becoming into being.
The educational ideology illustrated in The Allegory of the Cave proposes teaching as a process of conversion which can bring about true enlightenment. The allegory introduces two kinds of bewilderments: one is the ascent from the primitive state to a more sophisticated state; the other the descent from the beatific vision to human affairs. We shall call one lucky if he is experiencing the former one and pity those who belong to the latter one. However whichever

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