Justice and Plato

A Key to Discovering the Well-Balanced Classroom

As a teacher, one has to evaluate their own individual progress. Does my classroom run smoothly? What kind of problems am I having? How can I solve them without causing anguish to myself or others? In order to have an environment where students can learn to the best of their ability, a classroom needs to be well-balanced. Once a classroom is well-balanced a student can learn, without having to deal with extraneous circumstances such as; excess noise in the room, teacher not maintaining control and other distractions. The student's academic and overall well-being is dependent upon the classroom environment.

Therefore, a classroom needs to be run in a certain manner. Plato defines justice as being when "reason will rule, with the spirited element as its auxiliary over the bodily appetites"(139). Can a classroom be run like an individual runs his or her own person? Should a classroom be run with justice? Does a teacher need a just environment in order to maintain a well-balanced classroom? Through looking at Plato's journey to uncover the meaning of justice and injustice, the teacher can learn tools crucial to educating the person, and the classroom.

In the beginning of Plato's Republic, he looks to define justice through having arguments for injustice. In the arguments for injustice that are made, various elements of justice are made clear. There are three different ways to look at justice. One is that justice is seen as doing something good for its reward. Justice is also done for its own sake. Finally, justice is seen as something that is done for the sake of doing it, and the concluding result as well. Plato believes that justice can be found in the third category. However, Glaucon says it is the first category. He seeks to prove this by discussing injustice. Injustice happens because people want power. It is also easier to do injustice. Doing the just, the right thing takes more effort, and does not yield such fruitful results for people. When someone is unjust they cover up their mistakes and in turn get riches, love, and social status. A just person lives a humble life in extremely humble surroundings. That kind of an existence does not appeal to most people.

It is very similar to the idea of cheating on a test. If you bring in an answer key to a test, you have the answers right in front of you, and you can copy them. It only takes ten minutes to copy down these answers. But, in order to do well on the test due to your own knowledge it takes hours of studying. It also takes application and practice, which are not things that people like to do. A young girl can go socialize and then make a cheat sheet, or she can spend her entire night studying. The more appealing choice is to go be social with her friends. So she does the unjust thing, and the teacher is not looking, and she does not get caught. Her academic reputation remains intact, and her social life does as well.

Adeimantus says, "What children are told by their fathers and their pastors and masters is that it's a good thing to be just. What is commended is not justice in itself, but the respectability it brings"(48). This statement is really at the heart of the debate about justice. It may be easier to be unjust, but in the end justice is what makes someone a respectable citizen. This does not mean that people do just things for the right reasons, it just means that the result of a just action is being viewed as respectable. For instance, if a nursery school child throws a temper tantrum they can be put in a corner for "time out". They are being punished for bad behavior. However, their teacher tells them, "If you quiet down I'll give you a Spiderman sticker! Listeners are good boys! And good boys get Spiderman stickers!" The thought pattern of the teacher is that if the boy listens he will be a "better" child and more "respectable". However, the young boy thinks, "Man, I want that sticker, so I'll just be quiet so she gives it to me." Respectability may not be a concept a child can understand, but a reward is.

The concept of an action and consequence is something that can be explored in the classroom, as well as in the legal system. In Plato's Republic it is said that, "Whatever the law prescribed they called lawful and right. That is what right or justice is and how it came into existence; it stands half-way between the best thing of all- to do wrong with impunity- and the worst, which is to suffer wrong without the power to retaliate"(44).

In a classroom teachers are supposed to make rules and make sure the students are aware of them. These rules are put into play because the classroom needs to be well-balanced and functional. Children need to know limits, as well as expectations that are to be made of them. We also have rules in our society; the constitution, the Ten Commandments. We have rules established by institutions in order to produce just communities. But do these rules really make people more just, or do they breed injustice and greed at the prospect of reward?

Let us return to the way Plato defines justice, as when "reason will rule, with the spirited element as its auxiliary over the bodily appetites"(139). It is like the mind and body will work together to control unhealthy animal urges. Part of being a "just" person Plato says, is being a wise and temperate person. Wise and temperate people are not greedy for power or lustful in any way. These people have the courage and bravery needed to do right and not give into powerful negative urges.

In Plato's Republic, a story is told, of Gyges. Gyges takes a ring off of the hand of a dead woman. He then wears it, and when he turns the bezel in he becomes invisible. When he turns it out he becomes visible once again. He ends up using his power to do wrong for more unjust causes. He eventually seduces the Queen and kills the King. It is almost like a dread disease. Power feeds power. This man saw a loophole in the system; he could do wrong, yet keep his reputation intact and thriving. He could accumulate wealth without working for it.

The point of injustice is to be so good at working the system that someone seems to be completely just. To really tell if a man is just or not one needs to take away the rewards that are involved and see what happens. Plato says that a just man will live out his life without reward and enjoy his humble existence, while an unjust man will only be just if there is reward or reputation involved.

Often people try to live up to a certain reputation. Children want to be loved and prized, parents want to be right and responsible. Certain intrinsic qualities of justice are needed to be a good citizen, student and parent. Plato says, "If a man is to be gentle towards his own people whom he knows, he must have an instinctive love of wisdom and understanding."(66)

Teachers can attempt to teach these, but children must instinctively have these qualities. Some things, like personality cannot be taught. However, Plato states, "We supervise making of fables and legends rejecting all which are unsatisfactory."(68) This directly contrasts the way Rousseau looks at children and their growth. He believes that when children's experiences become things that are dictated by adults, they ruin the real essence of childhood. In changing and altering fables and stories which are to be learned, a teacher takes away essential life lessons that are part of a child just being a child.

Just like children have to learn life lessons, so do adults. In reference to the concept of injustice Plato says, "Injustice will mean invasion and encroachment upon the rights and duties of others"(120). Therefore, by a process of elimination, justice would have to be the idea of enforcing rights and duties, giving people a purpose in some way. In a just society, people deal with problems. Meanwhile, in an injust society, people hurt their community. They do not perform their roles as citizens or carry out responsibilities. They cheat the law. Like a child copying on a test, or appeasing a teacher, cheating in any sense is wrong. Justice in a state is like the idea of a man's nature being governed by his faculties. A just state obeys the law, a just man is responsible for himself, and a just child listens to his teacher.

If we live in a state that obeys the law, and we are responsible for ourselves, then we, as teachers will be able to get children to listen and learn in our classrooms. Justice is being a responsible person who reasons. It is essential for human life, and basically separates us from the animals we originated as. We reason, and make choices. Therefore we are just members of a civilized state.