Evidences of Plato's philosophy of education in the George Peabody demonstration school

Abstract

If Plato were to visit the George Peabody Training School, he could appropriately and intelligently say what the fly riding on the rear of a chariot in one of Aesop's fables ignorantly and boastingly says, a dust do I raise! For in the Peabody Training School one discovers many of Plato's recommendations for the education and training of youth, platitudes for learning which the great Greek philosopher fashioned over two thousand years ago and which educationists since that time have been unable to alter perceptibly. Emerson has said, Esentences of Plato] are the corner-stone of schools; these are the fountain-head of literatures.' Contemporary use of Plato's tenets for education substantiates Emerson's high commendation of them. What were the conditions of the people, the country, and of learning in Greece when Plato wrote his Dialogues? Who was Plato? These queries must be answered, in part at least, if one aspires to know why Plato thought so discriminately about the education of the young that his concepts are vital to the life and efficiency of a modern educational institution.