The Republic Education

Socrates isn't only concerned with who will rule; he's also concerned with how those rulers will be educated. Socrates is implying that political ability is directly linked to a solid education.

Definitely not the most specific educational curriculum we've encountered, but it's a start. Socrates really does care about the mind-body connection.

Socrates is describing an unorthodox aspect of the guardians' education: not only do they have a set curriculum, but their experience in school is also a kind of test. If these "tasks" end up making a potential guardian betray his convictions, well, he's not guardian material, after all.

Notice a pattern here? Socrates is making it very clear that the education of the guardians is extremely important. Here, he specifically links this to the issues of community and behavior, suggesting that solid schooling makes people play nicer with others.

For Socrates, this is the best part about education: if it's done right, it takes care of so many other things, too. What do you think? Is that how education works?

For a philosopher, it's kind of impressive that Socrates isn't only interested in the big, abstract aspects of education—he's interested in early childhood, too. That's something that even modern educators today spend a lot of time thinking about. It just goes to show you that for Socrates, education is totally serious business. It has to start even when children are very young.

Socrates is all about equal education for women: same expectations = same education. Too bad it took more than two millennia for most other people to figure this out, right?

This aspect of education in the Republic seems pretty suspect... taking children to witness the violence of warfare does not seem like a great educational practice. Speaking of which, what's up with war in the Republic? Isn't it a little strange that Socrates never really questions it here? He questions everything else, after all.

Using some nifty agricultural imagery here, Socrates explains that education can really make all the difference between virtue and its opposite. The connection between education and agriculture is actually an old one: our words for "culture" and "cultivation" come from the same root.

Reiterating his dedication to healthy minds in healthy bodies, Socrates wants to make it very clear that wisdom isn't only accomplished intellectually; it needs to be physical, too. Do you think of wisdom as having a physical component?