Date: December 16, 2014
Connecting the Pieces
“You cannot step into the same river twice.” (Heraclitus) This was a quote from the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, in which he is referring to the one thing in the universe that never changes, and that is: that everything is changing. When we think of time, most people might think of an analogue clock with twelve numbers and sixty ticks on it; as time continues to tick by, the hour hand slowly rotates, eventually repeating the cycle. The analogue clock might trap time for twelve hours, but no two seconds are ever exactly the same. While looking on a timeline, these two seconds that might have looked similar on the analogue clock, are indeed significantly different. They might differ by a factor of minutes, an hour, weeks, a year, or even centuries… the point is that each second has its own segment in time, and what we might conceive as being the same, is in fact not. This same concept might even be applicable to other ideas, such as how we perceive our education.
The first piece of data is “Plato’s Republic (Book III).” This will serve as the starting point of the timeline, as it is indeed the beginning of our education’s history. This piece of writing was written by Plato, all the way back in 360 BC, in which he writes about his teacher Socrates, who is the Father of Philosophy. The focus of this piece is on early educational reforms, which in today’s day and age, we still have similar reforms that Socrates made a thousand years ago. Socrates theorized about a perfect State in which only the most pure could be educated and in which everyone else was sent to be the working class (producers and craftsmen). Socrates has a strong sense of “Survival of the fittest,” which enables him to think this way about his educational system. One of the most impactful quotes said by Socrates is “Exclusion of poets from the schools. Value [only] the right sort of music and gymnastics,” (Plato) this gives a clear indication on how he felt about free thought, since poets are people who express how they feel. When he censored the poets of society he hindered the growth of his people as a whole. Furthermore, as we move into modern day educational reforms, we should note how allowing these poets into our society has pushed our thinking through the roof, and has allowed us to overcome many obstacles and advancements in modern day education.
The next piece of data is an interview with one of our greatest teachers of today, Sal Khan. Khan might be taking our next step in educational reforms, as he is well known for his, ever growing in popularity, website Khan Academy (Khan). This site gives us a break from the traditional textbook and brings us to the twenty-first century, in which we use modern technology to teach many different topics within a fifteen minute video. The way Khan and his team have implemented Khan Academy into ‘trial schools’ seems to be working with great success, the students at these schools are learning at a vast capacity. It seems Khan has the right idea for the direction of our future educational system, just like another great mind, Socrates. Khan has similar views as Socrates, and is becoming the most watched teacher of our era with over tens of millions of pupils absorbing his knowledge daily, just like Socrates was in his own time. But there are many differences between the two, and that is, Khan believes in a free World Class Education, where everyone should be able to learn to their hearts content, no matter their position on the totem pole. Whereas, Socrates only thought that the elite should learn the power that comes from knowledge, thus leaving the working class to thrive on their own. Also note that Khan proactively wants his pupils to fill their brains with knowledge no matter their race, the amount of money one might have, and/or other life choices an individual has made. Where on the flip side, Socrates gives his pupils one chance to succeed, if they fail (even during a personal situation) they are deemed unworthy of further education and the right to rule over the State. With that being said, there are many more differences between Socrates and Khan. Furthermore, I would like to bring to attention the interviewer, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Dr. Gupta would be one of the people who had furthered his education a great deal in Socrates’ Reforms. In our day and age, he holds one of the top degrees someone can obtain, a medical degree, in our educational system and currently works as a Neurosurgeon. His connection to higher education gives a good notion why he was intrigued by Khan, just as Plato was to Socrates.
The last piece of data is the article, “High School Graduation Rate Hits 40-Year Peak in the U.S.” The author, Emily Richmond, is well known for her educational research. She studies different educational situations from her small town to all around our nation. This connection to education also links together our previous examples. Inside the article Richmond explains to us the nation’s trending graduation rates. This data was based on many different factors, such as ethnicity, age range of thirteen to early twenties, and location. This raw data gives us a sense of how our current educational reforms are working out for our younger generations. The article states that “Two thirds of drop out students are not employed” (Richmond). This brings up the concern that schools need to figure out a way to bring back these students and help them strive to achieve an education, since a high school diploma is now a “prerequisite to living a standard life” (Richmond). Educators know how important this is; will continue to make reforms for them, because they want these students to have a decent life. This is comparable to how Socrates’ set up his Ideal State, though slightly adjusted to fit our modern needs. Socrates believed that if one was not suited for his education that it was mandatory that one had to work as a producer of the land or as a craftsmen, he would not have let laziness corrupt his perfect State. In his time, if there was not a job available for a person deemed to be in the working class, he would create one to further the success of the society. In the case of our modern times, educators believe that all citizens of our nation should be educated because the jobs that further our society require a certain level of intelligence to move forward. This is why we should be concerned with lower graduation rates around our nation. Allowing people not to work harms our nation’s progression towards being the best of the best.
As we look over our educational “time line,” we might notice that our education has similarities to how Socrates wanted education to be taught, and what we could get out of our educations. But unlike Socrates’ reforms, education today is for all people to obtain and they are allowed to learn until they have acquired all the knowledge that they set out to seek. Whereas Socrates held the top education for one class of people, and those people were set to rule over the society after he had gone through his education. For centuries, we have learned from books and papers, but as we enter the twenty-first century, technology has been booming, and computers have become used more in the modern classroom. Now, a decade and some change into this century; we are starting to recreate our educational system, so that it keeps up with the modern time. This means that there are an increasing amount of online courses and ways of learning via the World Wide Web. Just like time, our education continues to change. Even though we might learn similar material, over time the material is taught in different ways. With time comes knowledge, every second counts, sooner or later questions will arise about the way of learning and someone will act on it. Another few centuries and there will be another new way or idea to teach developing minds the knowledge of the past. But one thing is for certain, one second information might be new and relevant, the other it might be history, and less relevant to what is going on around it.
Works Cited
Heraclitus. Fragments, The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus. Ephesus: Brooks Haxton, 500 BC. text.
Khan, Sal. Khan Academy: The Future of Education Sanjay Gupta. 11 March 2012. 60-Minutes Show.
Plato. "Book III." Plato. The Republic. Ed. Louis Loomis. Trans. Benjamin Jewett. The Classic Clubs, 360 BC. 288-306. 1942.
Richmond, Emily. "High School Graduation Rate Hits 40-year Peak in U.S." The Atlantic 6 June 2013: 2. Print.
