Response to 9-14-11

Plato believes that while the guardians are younger that their parents should engrave into the young sponge-like minds the good morals and values that will hopefully be carried into young adulthood. This is supposed to help their decision making when they get older. When they get older on their own the young adults are supposed to study three different fields in order to help their reasoning skills. These three skills that are studied are arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. By the time the guardians turn into young adults they are supposed to know the difference between good and evil. They are at an age were their parents can no longer influence them in their behavior. Plato believed if the parents influenced their children at a young age the children had more of a chance to be better individuals when they reach an older age. Plato also believed that people who didn't have good morals should be forgiven because their parents didn't instill these values into the young persons mind. However to accommodate everyone these children as they got older got sent off so that they could work on their skills that got robbed from them during childhood because if neglectful parents.