Plato's Republic And Arthur W. Combs Affective Education Or None At All

Education, more often than not, emphasizes the roles of teachers, however, the way students learn in a classroom setting is still in dire need of reevaluation. Learning can only happen when the entire self is accounted for and engaged in the process. The emphasis of the whole self in learning is discussed in both Plato’s Republic and Arthur W. Combs Affective Education or None at All. These two authors see learning as an exploration of meaning that incorporates the whole self, including affect, and not just the absorption of information. With their whole selves involved in learning, a deeper understanding is developed with the goal of foster engaged and educated citizens. Plato’s Republic (trans. 1968) illustrates the image of the
Arthur W. Combs highlights this in Affective Education or None at All, illustrating the importance of emphasizing emotions as a factor of learning in education. Student’s emotions are not just parts of their social being outside the school, but also have the ability to affect the way that they learn. Learning itself incorporates “two things: exposure to new information or experience and the personal discovery of what it means” (Combs, 1982, pp. 495). At the very core of learning is the discovery of meaning, which is emotionally charged. With the flaw in the implementation of education in schools, many times emotion and learning are taken to be mutually exclusive, when they are interdependent. The educational system needs to be adapted to the modern ages, so that students are given the chance to develop the emotional parts of their being to fully engage in the world around
The idea of the whole self, combines the mental, physical, and emotional aspects that make up an individual. In the cave, one is unable to visually look upon the light of knowledge and truth without turning the entire body and that hold true as well for modern day students. Socrates asserts that “the instrument with which each learns…must be turned around from that which is coming into being together with the whole soul” (Plato, trans. 1968, pp. 197). Learning cannot happen with the sole focus on exposure to new information or experiences. Those in the cave are being exposed to new objects and sounds through shadows and echoes. They are given the information, but unable to look upon the objects to develop their own understanding of what was presented. Throughout the ages, the field of education has only been concerned with the deliverance of information and not the development of meaning. Combs details that “there are crucial aspects of learning [that] lie in the subjective experience of the learner” (1982, pp. 495). Education often fails to acknowledge that any information is the formation of any idea is tinged with emotions, and driven by experience. The knowledge gathered from those in the past and presented to students of this age were also subject to affect. Individuals have to be able to go out and observe, experience, interpret, and record their