A Thought for Socrates

In her book Why Greece?, the great classical scholar Jacqueline de Romilly (1913–2010), referring to Socrates (470–399 BC), tells us that he is invoked in every era and in every country "to inspire belief in the afterlife, to condemn pedantry, to foster the tenderness that lies at the heart of all teaching*", and that he is invoked "for his irony, for his courage, for the triumph of the soul over the body, for the rights of ugliness and the worship of beauty"—and that, in doing so, "he still lives."

Jacqueline de Romilly, Why Greece?, Paris, Éditions de Fallois, 1992, p. 264

And let us not forget that the man who said, "The only thing I know is that I know nothing," was sentenced to death by Athens, a democracy, which accused him of failing to respect the gods and of corrupting the youth. We also know that he could have escaped, but chose instead to die by drinking hemlock.

Almost 25 centuries later, we still have a duty to "foster the tenderness that lies at the heart of all teaching* ", at the heart of all education—the kind of education that Holistic Educ seeks to promote for every child around the world.

* Emphasis added by us