Plato, Term Paper Example

Introduction

In the modern day world, education is doing quite a great job to the society. It is opening opportunities for them to develop, and get civilization. There are concerns though that there is a fault that is developing between the educated and the non-educated. The major gap is evidenced by the fact that most educated persons in the developing countries live in the metropolitan urban centers while the uneducated are mainly found in the dark rural areas. Modernity is seen in the urban areas where the educated are located. They are more outgoing and embracing modern improvements. The uneducated stick to their cultures in the rural setting and view the educated as going against what is right. This has created a rift between the two. Various writers have written about the issue of whether education alienates a person from the society or not.

Plato’s Cave Allegory

In his allegory, Plato brings out clearly how a person is distanced from the society by education. This happens because the person becomes different from the rest of the society members. In his allegory Plato presents a picture of a cave inhabited by prisoners who are held there by chains since childhood (Plato, 1941).  The prisoners have both legs and hands cuffed. Their heads are also made to look at a fixed point. On their hind is a fire. At the center of the fire and the prisoners is a bridge through which other men pass by with huge loads. The only things these prisoners see is the shadows and never see what casts them there. They also hear the echoes from the caves walls as a result of sounds on the bridge. The prisoners, Plato argues that they would view the shadows as real objects and the echoes as actual sounds. They would view anybody who guessed the next shadow appearance or echo sounding as most clever and would have praises for him or her. They would take person to understand the nature of the world they lived in.

If the prisoner is un-cuffed and shown the objects that produced the echoes or the shadows, they would not recognize them. If the prisoner was made to look into the fire, he would attempt to look back to the wall because the light could be blinding to him. Taking the prisoner outside the cave would even be met with greater resistance. However, after some time the prisoner would get used to the new environment. He would visualize a variety of objects in his vicinity and look at the bright sun. He would come to learn that the sun was the source of everything including the objects he and his fellow prisoners had been seeing in the cave.

The freed prisoner would now be quite satisfied with the new discovery and would pity the prisoners he left behind. He would be a happy man. He would despise the praises they made to those who guessed the next shadows. If he were to return to the cave he would be so low at the game. He would be unable to get used to the dark. The others would think that he left and returned with an impaired vision. The other prisoners would not even wish to get out of the cave. They would resist release from cave with as much force as possible.

What this allegory means is that education opens up a person’s eyes. He becomes intelligible and able to act in a prudent way in public and in private. He looks quite ungracious when he first gets enlighten but finally gets accustomed to it. He is at a dilemma though because he is different from his original self and an acceptable to his original society. He is well mannered in education terms but not in his society. His rejection of what used to be the norms and mainstream ways in his society makes the others view him as an outcast.

Ivan Illich in the Book, Deschooling the Society

Worldwide education via a system of schools is unreasonable. It would still not be reasonable if a different method of institutions constructed on the design of current ones. Fresh mind-set of educators towards their students, production of educational IT infrastructure, or enlarging the teacher’s responsibility to capture a student’s whole life will never bring worldwide education. Presently the search for fresh educational channel ought to be turned into the hunt for the organizational opposite. They should change every moment of life one that is all inclusive. In his book Ivan (1971) argues that educational institutionalization leans more to establishing the society as an institution. So it is clear that thoughts meant towards lessening institutional setting in the education could form the base for reducing the making of the society into an institution. Ivan (1971) calls for application of highly developed technology to help and complement the educational networks. In accordance to the current analysis that has been conducted in The Libertarian Forum, “the advocacy of Illich concerning to the open market in system of education is like the throat bone that is choking the educators of public.” However, it is significant to note that the opposition of Illich was not only to those schools that were publicly-funded, but schooling as such; the schools’ disestablishment was for Ivan not a means to an open market in the services of education, but a society that has been deschooled, which was an extra essential shift. Afterward, he in fact disagreed with the advocates of education in open-market as the most unsafe educational reformers category.

Running of a system to link equals or peers would be easy. Visitors would need provide identification and outline the doings for which they are seeking an equal. The system would match make and come up with all the tallying decryptions. A humble application like this has not been completely exploited for large scale on public activities, which is a wonder. Ivan advocates for uncontrolled market system in education, which caused friction with educators in the public sector. He advocates for this to provide an interactive system of education that will be all round and thus deschooling the society.

Ivan and Plato are linked in that Ivan wants to reduce rigidities in the education sector that makes it hard for interaction. Deschooling implies use of those systems that lead to sharing and learning. This can help to reduce the rift that education as Plato showed causes a rift between the educated and the un-educated. His postulation though largely criticized is helpful in reducing that gap and integrating the more learned and the less learned together. This ensures that there is no alienation or isolation of the educated in the society.

Roy’s Book, the Mantle of the Prophet

In his book Roy (1985), conflict involving the material learning and Islamic is highlighted. The spirit of the Iran’s culture is double heartedness. There are a number of examples of the differences among the different groups and double standards naturally occurring in Iran’s culture. There are the materialists engaging the mullahs. There is also the custom versus the westernized battling each other. There are many more other examples of these antagonisms between the two different groups.

According to the book, the Persian literature is a clear exhibition of the double standards culture which is ambiguous. The double standard culture stems from the interaction with western cultures. That is the western-Asian intercourse due to the geographical and political role of the Persian territory as central point for the eastern and western cultures. Iran’s has history experienced alterations coming from the conflicts. The book shows a self realized Hashemi and various prominent Iranians. A great learner instills into the religiously educated students his ideologies of activism which later are to lead to a revolution. He later emerges as the greatest juror who uses his skills to improve the society.

It the shows the forces leading to revolution during the seventies. Intellectuals censure the dumping culture coined by the westerners and the westernized. The unfortunate urban dwellers alienated by the reforms in the land regulations and the growth of industries come to a realization that all these measures are not yielding any good for them. They later form masses who take to the streets to ouster the prominent shahs.

The book demystifies the myth taken by many that the shih are evil and blood thirsty people with no regard for the dignity of human life. It shows them as a faith which has undergone so much trouble for its survival. It presents an image that holds and comes back to the mind long after reading. This is the image of teacher who wakes up at wee hours of the night to pray. He asks to be forgiven in the course of his prayers three hundred times. This book shows that regardless of which creed or life there should not be any kind of a curtain that separates people. It relates to Plato’s work. It shows that the lesser educated are marginalized in the society. The live in the poor suburbs of the city and the services provided by the authority never benefits them. The work shows the need to de-institutionalize schooling so as to improve the learning process and integration of people with different education.

What Kind of Treatment Do People With Disimilar Education From Others Face?

In the modern day there are variations in the kinds of treatments people get in relation to their education. Those with high western education are highly regarded in the modern society setting. They hold positions of power in the society and live in exclusively expensive neighborhoods. They are isolated from the larger community. On the contrary, in the rural setting especially in the African continent where education is a rare commodity, they are viewed as having left their cultures and seen to practice behaviors which are considered to be taboos. They are thus mostly found in the urban areas where a mix of cultures exist and are mixed up. No one cares about what the other does in the urban areas. The Muslim education has its different education from that of Christianity in terms of religion. There is distrust between Christian and Muslim education. Each group views the other to be going against the norms.

This makes certain areas to be mainly dominated by a particular group depending on religion. In the cave allegory, the prisoner who leaves and gets enlightened would seem foolish in the eyes of those who he left in the cave. This shows how skeptical people are about those who are highly educated. In the modern world, those who have taken to deeper depths in science are viewed to be in a competition with God. They are taken as disapproving his creation and control of nature. The lesser educated are discriminated against in many areas. This has created competition among individuals and those with greater education are seen as a threat. This is what Ivan calls the demand driven education that institutionalizes people and the society. It takes the educated further away from the society.

On Responsibility of the Educated

The educated person in the society is faced with challenge of changing the perception of people towards education. They are supposed to educate the same society from which they are isolated. In Plato’s allegory, it is evident that those who have had the chance of enlightenment are the most best fitted to lead a society. They are the kind that is able to see the truth beyond the surface view of what everybody else sees. They are the people we who have overcome the general resistance for enlightenment and can get the rest out of the dark holes in which they lie. In Roy’s mantle of the prophet, it can be seen that the educated mullah comes in handy to help liberate the society from the oppression by the prominent shahs who are out to exploit them. They organize through local religious councils, a revolution and oust the shahs. These clearly show that the enlightened in the society are much responsible for the conditions of the other persons. Having seen the light, they ought to enlighten the others to clear the mist off their eyes. To give them a better angle to view the world through. Ivan proposes a de-institutionalized system of education. This will provide a platform for other enlightened individuals to educate the rest.

In conclusion, all the authors are in agreement in their works that education isolates the educated from the rest of the society or the crowd. They stand out in many ways and are charged with greater responsibilities in the society. They are however the one ones charged with the greatest of all responsibility of enlightening the society. They should lead them from an informed point of view as they have greater experiences attained through the education process. The only obvious idea that can be seen that education is important and all necessary measures should be taken to make it equitably accessible to all who need it. It should embrace diversity though to encourage union of people.

References

M (1985). The Mantle of the Prophet. Pantheon books.

Ivan, I (1971). Deschooling Society. Marion Boyars publishers.

Plato and Jowett, B (1941). Plato’s the Republic. New York: Modern library.