Pedagogical ideas - from Plato to Emmanuel to the Codification

Humanity learned to record its knowledge with hunting and survival drawings on stones until the emergence of writing. With it, we were able to pass on our history and knowledge to future generations. Education spreads through history, with humanity's mistakes and successes. Books teach us every day, every sentence, every thought. Let's spread our education through our actions on behalf of humanity.

Plato, the first pedagogue

The Greek philosopher foresaw a system of education that mobilized the whole of society to form wise men and find virtue.

In the history of ideas, the Greek Plato (427-347 BC) was the first pedagogue, not only for having designed an educational system for his time, but mainly for having integrated it with an ethical and political dimension. The ultimate goal of education, for the philosopher, was the formation of a moral man, living in a just state.

Plato was the second of the triad of great classical philosophers, succeeding Socrates (469-399 BC) and preceding Aristotle (384-322 BC), his disciple. Like Socrates, Plato rejected the education practiced in Greece at the time, which was carried out by the sophists, who were tasked with imparting technical knowledge - especially oratory - to the young elite in order to make them suitable for public office. “The sophists claimed that they could equally defend opposing theses, depending on the interests at stake,” says Sérgio Augusto Sardi, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). “Plato, on the other hand, thought in terms of a continuous search for virtue, justice and truth.”

For Plato, “all virtue is knowledge”. According to him, the virtuous man is given knowledge of the good and the beautiful. The pursuit of virtue must continue throughout life - therefore, education cannot be restricted to the years of youth. Education is so important for a political order based on justice - as Plato advocated - that it should be the task of the whole of society.

Plato believed that through knowledge it would be possible to control instincts, greed and violence. Access to the values of civilization would therefore act as an antidote to all the evil committed by human beings against their fellow human beings. Today, few agree with this; the main cause was the atrocities committed by the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, which thrived even in cultured and developed countries such as Germany. On the other hand, there is no consistent education without ethical values.

Read also: One of Christ's most lucid disciples

Emmanuel - educator of souls

Emmanuel, in his in-depth study of pedagogical ideas, meets Plato's ideas, completing a cycle in history, where together they meet in the Spiritism codified by Allan Kardec.

“Education, in a nutshell, is the Light that circulates victoriously from feeling to reasoning, sustaining the balance between the brain and the heart. The idea enlightens. Feeling creates. The word builds” (Emmanuel).

Let's learn by serving

Wherever you are, make light of yourself, so that the darkness falls away.

Only light will disintegrate the crystallizations of the shadow on Earth, in which ignorance and poverty weave a [dark] nest for restlessness and suffering.

But don't get stuck in the one-sided view of the big problem.

Education, in a nutshell, is light that circulates victoriously from feeling to reasoning, sustaining the balance between the brain and the heart.

Science builds medicine.

 Human understanding makes the doctor.

Letters raise the teaching profession.

Consecration to teaching begets the teacher.

The technique extends the industry's assets.

Devotion to work raises up the missionaries of progress.

Theology shapes religion.

The virtues of faith, really lived out, build up the shepherd.

The university issues diplomas.

The school of example, in the testimonies of elevation within the daily struggle, forms the true servants of the world.

We can't do without instruction.

But we won't honor clear and noble thinking without moral acrisolation.

The idea makes it clear.

Feeling creates.

 The word edifies.

 Example drags.

That's why Jesus, extolling wisdom, didn't forget to practice love.

Let's learn by serving.

This is the only formula capable of reuniting us with the Master we seek.

Many have gold and silver...

Many have the culture...

Many keep their kindness...

Many have the power...

But they don't know how to shine a light on themselves; wealth and intelligence, affection and domination sometimes serve them only as a vast boulder in the field of experience.

So put the science that enlightens you into your brain, but inflame the heart that beats in your chest with love, because only in this way will you turn your life into a star of service and faith, guiding your soul in triumph beyond the shadows that swarm around the values of trial and death.

Emmanuel

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Sources
The education of man according to Plato, Evilázio F. Borges Teixeira.
The Republic, Plato.
The banquet, Plato.
The thinkers, Plato.Paideia - the formation of the Greek man, Werner Jaeger.