Plato’s Cave Allegory
Education as Cave metaphor
Like most children, Chris and Allie are excited about their first day of grade 1. These two kindergarten friends look forward to story time, play centres, and finger painting among many other things. Chris walks into a familiar room. Small tables are arranged in clusters of 4 around a central carpet and there is an activity centre in each corner. Allie finds something very different. Small student desks are arranged in neat straight rows with a large teacher's desk at the front of the room. Chris and Allie, are going to have vastly different grade 1 experiences - and that’s by choice.
Public education holds the great promise of continually enriching and improving life for all. Educators make choices each moment of every day. They can choose to support and they can choose to control.
We often tell stories, by way of allegory and metaphor, to help us better understand our world and ourselves. Consider the story of "the Cave" to understand the choices we make in the education of our children.
An allegory is defined as a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
A metaphor, on the other hand, is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.
Education as a cave is a metaphor that draws upon thoughts and images that resonate across the ages. From Plato's cave allegory, written in 517 B.C.E., through R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Ring trilogy we’ve been using caves, treasure, and light to convey thoughts on education.
Plato used the image of a journey from inside a cave to show how humans become either enlightened or ignorant. Imagine people born inside a cave at the bottom of a long tunnel. The tunnel is at a steep angle and connects the world outside. Some people grow up chained so they always face a rock wall. Above and behind them is a fire. Between the fire and these prisoners is a long low wall like those puppeteers and marionette players use.
Other people, we'll call them teachers, pass behind the screen carrying cardboard cutouts and other objects that stick up above the screen. These teachers also talk and create other sounds that echo around the cave.
Chained and unable to turn their heads, the prisoners see only the shadows or one another and the shadows of the objects being carried back and forth behind them. They speak to one another and can hear other sounds made by the teachers echoing around the cave. Their reality - their truth - is nothing but shadows and echoes.
One day, some of the prisoners are released. They stand and stretch a bit before turning towards the light. The light from the fire hurts their eyes and they are unable to see the reality of their situation - some look away. The eyes of those who remain gradually adjust to the new light. They realize that what they saw before were illusions. Turned towards the light, they have a clearer vision of reality. Teachers start asking for the names of the objects passing by. Some prisoners find this painful and turn away from the objects in the firelight, seeking comfort in the familiar illusions and shadows - to them the shadows remain real.
Those prisoners who endure this pain see ever increasing detail in the objects carried by the teachers in the light of the fire. Some prisoners look down and pick up artifacts and join the procession of teachers. Others look up and notice a small circle of light high above the fire. This is distant sunlight from the mouth of the cave.
This is where we diverge from Plato’s allegory. Plato’s prisoner is dragged across the rough and rocky tunnel and out the cave entrance into the sunlight and is thus transformed and enlightened.
Our modified education metaphor focuses more upon the journey than the destination. Our former “prisoners” become “adventurers” and embark on a coming of age story. Like Tolkien’s Bilbo Baggins from the Hobbit, they gain skills and understanding through a series of adventures along the rough and rocky path toward truth and enlightenment.
Leaving the comfort of the only home they’ve ever known and venturing beyond the circle of firelight, our “adventurers” stumble around in the darkness and bash against the uneven terrain of the cave walls and floor. They cannot find their way without light. The adventurers return and retrieve some of the burning sticks from the fire to take with them to light the way.
Carrying their own light, they are better able to navigate through the unknown terrain. As the burning sticks are consumed the adventurers are forced to return to the fire for more. Eventually, looking around, they find sticks and other combustible materials in recesses along the tunnel. They collect these new materials and use them to light their way and continue their journey. They also place small piles of burning sticks along the tunnel to make it easier to retrieve more burning sticks, easier to retrace their own steps, and easier for others to follow.
Along the way they get to a deep crevasse with no way to cross. The gap is too wide to jump with walls too steep to scale. Carrying their burning sticks the adventurers fan out to explore beyond the path into unseen parts of the cave. One discovers a cache of wood, another finds a rope and other materials. The group works together to build a bridge and cross the crevasse.
A little further they come across a pool of icy water; so wide that the light from their sticks does not show them the far side. Somehow they find materials and skills to build a raft that carries them to the opposite shore.
These and other challenges are beyond the light of the fire at the bottom of the cave and, therefore, invisible to the adventures until they come upon them.
Eventually our adventurers reach the mouth of the cave. It is here that we return to Plato’s narrative.
Leaving the cave the adventures are again blinded in the sunlight and deafened by the richness of sounds. They return to the safety and comfort of the cave. A few brave souls venture out after sunset and explore the land by moonlight. Gradually, these adventures adjust to the brightness of the sun and become enlightened to the realities of the world outside of the cave.
The enlightened ones return to free their imprisoned friends who remain chained in the cave below. But their eyes, having grown accustomed to sunlight, cannot see clearly in the darkness and even the shadows on the cave wall are unclear. Many prisoners see this confusion and reject the “new reality” that is being shared. These fantastic stories are too far removed from the prisoners’ lived truth to be taken seriously - these “enlightened” ones are clearly delusional. The journey they are suggesting is obviously far too risky and dangerous to be attempted.
Some of the “enlightened” become Teachers and build more and better artifacts of what they have seen outside the cave and improve the procession. These new teachers also convey tales of their journey to help instill the prisoners with the curiosity, courage and hope required to venture beyond what’s familiar. Others manage to free some of the prisoners and lead them on a return trip out of the cave.
The promise of Plato’s cave for public education is that those “enlightened” in positions of power and privilege have a choice in how they behave towards the prisoners. They have a choice to support or to control - to empower or to subjugate - to enrich or to impoverish.
Those choosing to SUPPORT focus on:
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Those choosing to CONTROL focus on:
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Public education is a set of choices - choices that adults make for children.
Let’s return to our two friends. Chris and Allie are on divergent paths - one enlightenment and the other control. Each child's path is not chosen by them but for them. Their path is chosen by adults. These two young minds will continue to have very divergent experiences due to the choices that adults make for them. They will become the adults that the adults around them choose for them.
Call to Action:
We are building a community dedicated to Public Education as the path to universal ENLIGHTENMENT - Network-Paradox.
At Network Paradox we work with communities to make school better for everyone, every moment of each and every day.
We ENLIGHTEN choosing Support over Control.
To find out more email us NetworkParadox.org
