The Impact of the Greek Philosophers on Modern Education‏

Philosophy, the love for wisdom, no doubt, is as old as human reason rather existence is.
The annals of the recorded history show Greece as the birthplace of philosophic thought. The Greek wisdom, like the Greek civilization and learning, has affected human life a great deal.Philosophy is considered to be the child of Greek wise men and its birth is attributed to the father of dialectic method, Socrates. It was worked upon by Socrates’ pupil, Plato and, in turn, by his disciple, Aristotle. Philosophy, in its present shape, has come down to us through the hands of the Greek philosophers, followed by the Hellenistic, Medieval and the Modern philosophers. Like all the philosophers, the educationist philosophers have also revered the Greek philosophers as the founding fathers. And, in turn, they have got inspiration from the ancient sages.Socrates was the first one to suggest that when one realizes that he does not know anything, he starts to gain knowledge. He initiated the dialectic method in which the students are prompted to think independently by the use of questions. According to him, a teacher is a midwife who does not conceive an idea but prompts it in the minds of the learners and brings it out into the world in the best possible way. So, it is the task of the teacher to bring out the ideas in a successful way. In addition, Socrates maintained that ideas exist in the minds of the students. So he can rightly be called a cognitivist. He did not regard human mind to be void of ideas. He inculcated, in his pupils, the abilities of making inquiry, of logical thinking, of analysis of ideas and of questioning things. He developed awareness and vigilance among the Athenians. All these values have been taken up by the modern educationists.Plato, Socrates’ disciple, held a bit different views from his master. For him, the ideas are a reality and the ideas do not exist in the mind of the man but in the mind of the Prime Mover. This world is removed from reality by one step and art, being an imitation of the world, is doubly away from the reality. Plato’s concept of the Absolute Idea of the Good is the main source of pantheistic and religious doctrines of Western culture. He believed in ‘personal virtue’ and ‘social justice’. For him, the former meant a balance in emotions, desires and reason while the latter meant harmony among the different social classes. He propounded the idea of universal education and maintained that the state should cater for providing education to all the individuals living in it. Moreover, he maintained that a sound mind can exist only in a sound body. This has led to an emphasis on physical education and to the notion that physical education should be a part of the curriculum and that it should not be treated as extra-curricular.On the contrary, Plato’s student, Aristotle believed in ‘observation’ and ‘experience’ to be the means of gaining knowledge. This is the notion on which modern science, philosophy and education are resting. While talking of experiences, he emphasized the experiences of an individual.All the Greek philosophers’ views have been the inspirational sources for all the educationists especially for John Dewey and Froebel who have influenced the educational concepts in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries.John Dewey, an American educationist, believed that there were only two natural guides for human beings to reach out to the “ultimate truth”. These guides, according to him, are science (scientific inquiry) and democracy (participation in just and democratic social and political communities). He propounded that learners have individual differences so the teaching and curriculum should be designed catering for the individual differences and needs of the learners. For him, education has two purposes: societal and individual. He believed that education should bring about the development of an individual as well as that of the society.Dewey maintained that education should be ‘progressive’ and ‘experiential’. According to him, experience is based on two things_______ continuity and interaction. It means that experiences are continuous and relative in nature, and whether good or bad, bring about learning. So, the learners before a teacher have different experiences and levels of learning. The new learning experience should be good enough for them to interact with in a situation. When the learners learn or experience something in a new situation, their past experiences interact with the new situation and a new learning outcome is resulted. It is the teacher’s job to present the new maximum learning of the individual. So, the teacher should be vigilant enough to have an insight into a child’s past experience and to give him maximum opportunities for learning. Dewey’s ideas can be illustrated with the help of his sayings as: “Education is not preparation for life. Education is life itself”;“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”Other philosophers and educationists, like Dewey, have based their educational theories on experiential learning rather learning through experience. One such philosopher is Froebel who gave the concept of ‘kindergarten’ that is ‘the garden of children’ and laid the foundation of activity-based learning. That is how many educationists believe in ‘learning through doing’. An educationist, while defining “teacher”, said: “Teacher is the person who does not do things for me but makes me do the things.”To conclude, the concept of education, in modern times, has changed altogether and this is under the influence of the Greek masters. The student is no more considered to be having an empty mind that has to be filled in with knowledge by the teacher. The individuals are assigned tasks keeping in mind their individual differences. They are encouraged a lot and the concept of ‘passing’ and ‘failing’ exams is vanishing because failing a student disheartens him. The role of a teacher has changed from an authoritarian to a friendly guide, a manager, a facilitator, a psychologist and a judge simultaneously. The curriculum is no longer an exercise for memory but it leads the students to reflect deeply and is activity-based. It is designed , nowadays, in such a way that an overall development of individuals is brought about by catering for their physical, emotional, intellectual, social, aesthetic and spiritual development.