Socrates' Influences in Modern Education

Modern education is a culmination of many years of theories and the end result of an evolutionary road that began thousands of years ago. Psychological theories that have been studied thoroughly in the past hundred years may be the main processes used for educating; but the ethical and reasoning environment that schools have come to represent cam from long before our time.

As the greeks became on the first civilizations to have a curiosity about the world, Socrates the philosopher began to convey ideas that revolutionized how humans thought. These ideas and theories are still used today in modern education. The elenchus, socrates method of debating, is a way of asking and answering questions to stimulate rational thinking and illuminate ideas. Today’s teaching environments are based essentially on asking questions and answering them. This way of teaching might seem like an obvious effective method, but to the greeks it was a new way of reasoning.

Socrates’ views on truth and happiness were one of the firsts to make people think about what kind of persons they were. Wisdom was a centrally important aspect of achieving happiness. Although today’s society is more concerned with maintaining a healthy lifestyle by dieting and exercising in order to live longer, Socrates believed in achieving the best possible state of the soul even if it included achieving wealth and honor. In today’s schools the pursuit of happiness is determined by preparing the students for a future by educating them properly. Students can make their own happiness and the schools will provide the education necessary to become successful. Socrates' lack of belief in the greek’s religions led him to develop moral reasoning that did not need a religious reason.

Morality should be based on man’s search for truth and not on the fear of religious deities. This sort of argument may have led to Socrates’ death and it is still a debated issue today among religious and non religious people. American public schools have to follow a doctrine of separating religion with education and the teachings of morality can be learned without any religious arguments.