Editing Philosophy of education (section)

=== Ancient ===
==== Plato ====
[[File:Platon altes Museum2.jpg|thumb|right|Inscribed [[herma]] of [[Plato]] ([[Berlin]], [[Altes Museum]])]]
[[Plato]]'s educational philosophy was grounded in a vision of an ideal ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' wherein the [[individual]] was best served by being subordinated to a just society due to a shift in emphasis that departed from his predecessors. The mind and body were to be considered separate entities. In the dialogues of [[Phaedo]], written in his "middle period" (360 BCE), Plato expressed his distinctive views about the nature of knowledge, reality, and the soul:<blockquote>When the soul and body are united, then nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and the body to obey and serve. Now which of these two functions is akin to the divine? and which to the mortal? Does not the divine appear&nbsp;... to be that which naturally orders and rules, and the mortal to be that which is subject and servant?<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/phaedo/#H1|title=Plato: Phaedo {{!}} Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|website=www.iep.utm.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-29|archive-date=2017-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507161608/http://www.iep.utm.edu/phaedo/#H1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html|title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} Phaedo by Plato|website=classics.mit.edu|access-date=2017-04-29|archive-date=2010-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123120125/http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>On this premise, Plato advocated removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as [[wards of the state]], with great care being taken to differentiate children suitable to the various castes, the highest receiving the most education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and care for the less able. Education would be [[holistic]], including facts, skills, physical discipline, and music and art, which he considered the highest form of endeavor.

Plato believed that talent was distributed non-genetically and thus must be found in children born in any [[social class]]. He built on this by insisting that those suitably [[gifted]] were to be trained by the state so that they might be qualified to assume the role of a [[ruling class]]. What this established was essentially a system of selective [[public education]] premised on the assumption that an educated minority of the population were, by virtue of their education (and inborn educability), sufficient for healthy governance.

Plato's writings contain some of the following ideas:
Elementary education would be confined to the guardian class till the age of 18, followed by two years of [[compulsory military training]] and then by [[higher education]] for those who qualified. While elementary education made the soul responsive to the environment, higher education helped the soul to search for truth which illuminated it. Both boys and girls receive the same kind of education. Elementary education consisted of music and gymnastics, designed to train and blend gentle and fierce qualities in the individual and create a harmonious person.<ref>Oliver Strunk, "Introduction"; and Plato, "From ''The Republic''" (3.9-13, 17-18) and "From ''The Timaeus''" (34b-37c) in ''Source Readings in Music History'' (NY: Norton, 1950, rev. 1998, ed. Thomas Mathiesen), 1-32.
books.google.com/books?id=ZtCYwFm2mTwC&pg=PA3
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At the age of 20, a selection was made. The best students would take an advanced course in [[mathematics]], [[geometry]], [[astronomy]] and harmonics. The first course in the scheme of higher education would last for ten years. It would be for those who had a flair for science. At the age of 30 there would be another selection; those who qualified would study dialectics and [[metaphysics]], [[logic]] and [[philosophy]] for the next five years. After accepting junior positions in the army for 15 years, a man would have completed his theoretical and practical education by the age of 50.

====Aristotle====
[[File:Busto di Aristotele conservato a Palazzo Altemps, Roma. Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto.jpg|thumb|right|Bust of Aristotle. Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by [[Lysippos]] from 330 BC.]]

Only fragments of [[Aristotle]]'s treatise ''On Education'' are still in existence. We thus know of his philosophy of education primarily through brief passages in other works. Aristotle considered human nature, [[Habit (psychology)|habit]] and [[reason]] to be equally important forces to be cultivated in education.[http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-arist.htm] Thus, for example, he considered repetition to be a key tool to develop good habits. The teacher was to lead the student systematically; this differs, for example, from Socrates' emphasis on questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas (though the comparison is perhaps incongruous since [[Socrates]] was dealing with adults).

Aristotle placed great emphasis on balancing the theoretical and practical aspects of subjects taught. Subjects he explicitly mentions as being important included reading, writing and mathematics; music; physical education; literature and history; and a wide range of sciences. He also mentioned the importance of play.

One of education's primary missions for Aristotle, perhaps its most important, was to produce good and [[virtuous]] citizens for the [[polis]]. ''All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of [[empire]]s depends on the education of youth.''<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/aristote.pdf |title=Resources |date=27 May 2015 |access-date=2021-08-14 |archive-date=2017-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020053948/http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/Publications/thinkerspdf/aristote.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>