Socrates spent most of his life engaged in education, and his teaching content was quite complex, including physical education, military training, dance, music, poetry, geometry, astronomy, mathematics, psychology and moral philosophy. He emphasized that The importance of moral education put forward the proposition that "virtue is knowledge" and advocated that education is to develop people's will and improve people's morality. The greatest contribution to education is to taste the question-and-answer method. In his teaching activities, He directly teaches students various specific knowledge, but asks various questions for students to answer. Even if the students answer wrong, he does not directly correct them, but asks questions again until the students themselves understand the mistakes and find the correct answers. Ladi believes that people will pursue knowledge only if they know that they are ignorant. Otherwise, it is impossible to learn true knowledge. The teaching method he adopted used clever questions and answers to expose the students' ignorance, thereby inspiring and guiding them to acquire knowledge on their own. As they said: I do not teach others with knowledge, but make the knowledge arise by itself. "Future generations will The question-and-answer method he tasted is called the Socratic Method or the "Midwife Method"
Plato is a student of Socrates. His main representative work is "The Republic". Plato's educational thoughts are mainly The following contents: First, attaching importance to the role of education. He believed that as long as good education is maintained, human nature in a country will be transformed. Education is not only a means of changing human nature, but also a tool for establishing and consolidating the "Utopia". With this understanding, he advocated that education be managed by the state and that the state stipulate a unified academic system. Secondly, he emphasized early education. Plato believed that education should start as early as possible. For this reason, he advocated prenatal education and promoted children between the ages of 3 and 6 to play in children's games. Accepting public preschool education, he valued the role of games in preschool education and advocated allowing children to be educated while playing games, learning songs, and listening to stories. Thirdly, he advocated the educational content of morality, intelligence, body, and beauty. Plato believed that. Teenagers aged 7 to 17, including girls, should receive general education, which only includes music and physical education. In addition to singing, dancing, and playing the harp, music also includes reading, writing, and arithmetic. Physical education includes gymnastics. Wrestling and military training. In addition to the above, students must also be given moral education. It can be seen that Plato advocates a harmonious education of morality, intelligence, body and beauty. Finally, he advocates the development of students' ability to "explore the essence of things". Plato advocated that after young people aged 18-20 receive two years of military training, the outstanding ones, that is, those who show special interest and talent in abstract thinking, should be selected for another 10 years of education to learn arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Theory, but the main purpose of their learning is not to apply it in practice, but to stimulate their interest in pursuing "pure truth" and "arouse the ability to think." Plato's educational thoughts had a great influence on later Western education.
In the history of Western education, Aristotle was the first to propose the idea that education should adapt to the natural development of human beings. He believed that different education should be carried out in accordance with the natural order of development, with the main purpose of making children grow up healthily. 5 The main activity for children after the age of 5 is from birth to 7 years old, which is family education. The main purpose is to make children grow up healthily. The main activity for children after the age of 5 is to play games and listen to stories. The second stage is from 7 to 14 years old. Schools run by the state receive a harmonious education, and the content of learning is reading, writing, music and morality. The education at this stage is mainly emotional and moral education. The third stage, from 14 to 21 years old, is mainly about governance education. It is believed that the subjects include arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and theory. Aristotle was the first educator in the history of education to distinguish the educational ages and put forward corresponding educational ideas.