Plato treats the subject of education in The Republic as an integral and vital part of a wider subject of the well-being of human society. The ultimate aim of education is to help people know the Idea of the Good, which is to be virtuous.
“A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.”
“Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life”. “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”
Quotes attributed to Plato.
Who said teaching was ever easy?
Socrates paid with his life for the crime of teaching his fellow Athenians.
The importance of a good education its never lost for most parents, its convincing the children the problem.
Yes I know, today getting an education can cost a fortune, and not every parent can send his children to a good school, but I am sure every conscious parent will do his best to give their child the best they can.
Reflections On The Hardships Of Teaching.
Well, what can we say, simply put to be a good teacher it takes many sacrifices, and love, yes you got to love teaching, otherwise you are not just wasting your time but worst, endangering the education of those who you teach.
If you may want to make money, being a teacher its probably not for you, only a few very specialized teachers may do that, and not necessarily will be the one you remember as a great inspiration for you, to try to achieve something in life, you may find those very early on your education.
Yes, that wonderful teacher who inspired you to really start reading, or be conscious about the neatness of your homework, or simply made the class not boring, and inspired you to find more about it on your own time.
Yes every teacher has to deal with nightmare students, its bad enough when you have two, or three, bad apples, at the classroom but sometimes its ridiculous!
Teaching Begins At Home
Usually bad discipline at home translate as bad behavior at school, if the parents are responsible, and dedicated parents, the child will be well behaved at the classroom.
Yes unfortunately bad behavior at school, doesn’t mean the school its lousy, but that you are not doing the proper thing with your children at home.
You will be surprised, at how many 21 year old youngsters behave worst than a child of seven, and its simply because they did not have at home any discipline whatsoever, very likely the parents were not taught either, or criminally abandoned their responsibility, and let children to themselves, or the result of broken homes, where the responsible parent spent most time at work, and children grew on their own.
Behavior its learned at home, period.
How do I know that?
Well, currently I am privately tutoring a 21 year old youngster, who mentally its at twelve at most!
He cannot do homework, its always late, he wants to change the class at his convenience, day, or hours, and place, regardless what we agree before, he questions me at every turn, like if what I am teaching its not true, he always knows better in an argument, about things he does not know anything, practically I have to force him to read a page on his phone, about what I am trying to teach him, so he realize I am not talking gibberish, or making it up, that by the way, take him a long time since he reads but very slowly, his phone its not a tool for research, but for entertainment, often bring next time a book on the subject we were arguing, and then he wants for me to give him the book for free!
Once I loaned a book for him to make a copy, he didn’t, he had a week to do it, and have to ask him several times for it, until his mother promise me she would return it to me, she did.
I mean the youngster its not stupid, bad, or mentally impaired, he is smart, he is just terribly childish.
Only child, parents divorced, mother works daily away from home, the youngster cannot keep a job, can you wonder why?
He may be 21, but he has not gain on maturity, period.
Being a teacher its not easy.
But it can be summed up on a brief list:
Disruptive environment, or simply put students discipline problems.
The rules of teaching are constantly changing. In some aspects, this is good while occasionally it may also be bad. Teaching is not immune to fads.
Great teachers invest a tremendous amount of time outside of the time spent with their students. They understand that all these things have a significant impact on student learning. However, teachers must commit to stepping away from their teaching responsibilities from time to time so that their personal life does not suffer in some aspect.
Students are not the same, they are at different levels, and some require more time and effort than others, in a crowded classroom, well it will be difficult to say the least.
Lack of funding, reflects on overcrowded classrooms, lacks of qualified teachers, books, materials, lack of time for personal attention and many other maladies, that unfortunately reflects also on the quality of the education for the absence of money.
And of course Parental involvement, or the lack of it.