Let us then first inquire if any regulations are to be laid down
about children, and secondly, whether the care of them should be the
concern of the state or of private individuals, which latter is in our
own day the common custom, and in the third place, what these
regulations should be.
BOOK EIGHT
I
NO ONE will doubt that the legislator should direct his attention
above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does
harm to the constitution The citizen should be molded to suit the form
of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar
character which originally formed and which continues to preserve
it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of
oligarchy creates oligarchy; and always the better the character,
the better the government.
Again, for the exercise of any faculty or art a previous training
and habituation are required; clearly therefore for the practice of
virtue. And since the whole city has one end, it is manifest that
education should be one and the same for all, and that it should be
public, and not private- not as at present, when every one looks after
his own children separately, and gives them separate instruction of
the sort which he thinks best; the training in things which are of
common interest should be the same for all.
Pages:
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337