Friday, March 03, 2006

Education, V

I taught few hours of Plato´s philosophy for some high school students this week. The very basics of the subject: Historical and cultural context where Socrates and his pupil Plato operated and formulated their philosophy in. I combined The Matrix with the allegory of the cave in order to dig into Plato´s views on the hierarchy of being, the eternal forms, the nature and object of knowledge and belief, the general human condition. Also often very misunderstood topic of love in Plato´s philosophy was covered.
Later, while reflecting on the classes taught, I had a moment in the upper floors of my house of consciousness. For the first time in my life I had taken part in the act of passing the socratic spark to the next generation in a formal public schooling system. Becoming a chain in this link that reaches over 2300 years back in time felt noble. I wish those young minds got some sparks during those lessons towards remembering themselves in relation to the eternal ideas in the spirit of Meno. It all worked well for me that way. Aletheia - gnôti sauton!

4 Comments:

Blogger Palin Zon said...

Human being is mature when s/he gives up to thought s/he is but a brick of the wall of mankind... and understands that s/he has this duty to teach everything s/he knows to her/his descendants. What a glorious effort it is!

8:22 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Teacher's pet, teacher's pet..." -- which band had that song? Can't remember but it was good.

Anyway, I think you make a great teacher. When I was at school this stuff just came to school, the teacher was a teacher of music and knew NOTHING about the subject, but somebody had to do those classes. What a leap we have taken since then, good for us. I'd have payed to have a teacher that knew about the subject and had a genuine, practical passion for it like you do.

There is something particularly cool about teaching critical thought and the history of conceptualization. When people hear of these for the first time, it tends to open such vistas of possibility it pays off to witness it.

Have fun enlightening the minds of wo/men! ;)

10:13 pm  
Blogger samrocha said...

cool blog, I juts pressed next blog and here I am... I find Plato fascinating and even mentioned him in my post yesterday...

Keep up the good work.

10:16 pm  
Blogger Tapio Kotkavuori said...

Thanks for your comments!

Petri, the band was Venom :D

12:16 am  

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