Plato believes strongly in the censorship of literature. He is concerned more with content rather than the form of literature. For example, he is greatly troubled by the poems of Hesiod and Homer that often portray gods and heroes as immoral, murderous, deceptive, vicious, unjust and feuding. According to Plato, these poems which are staples of Athenian education contain lies and portray gods and heroes performing indecent and immoral acts. Therefore, Plato aims to censor all immoral poetry containing vice of any kind, “false stories” with bad representations of gods or heroes that discourages courage by heightening the guardian

Between the ages of thirty-five and fifty they will spend their time in the darkness of the cave engaging in the practical affairs of the city, and holding commands in war. The objective here is to expose them to city life and provide them with practical experience; it will also serve as a test of their ability to abstain from the temptations of wealth, greed, and corruptions. Finally, at age fifty those who have passed all tests will be selected as philosopher kings for the rest of their lives. They will take turns ruling the city and studying philosophy.

Plato believes in an educational program that is well balanced in intellectual and physical training, that will ensure that the guardians are well cultivated, courageous, and moderate. He believes that if their education program contains too much art, music, and philosophy, they will become soft, and if they are not exposed enough to these arts, they will be too tough and savage.

’s fear of death, encourages extreme laughter, inspires lying by anyone other than rulers, discourages moderation, and teaches that injustice is profitable. Literature that contains honesty, loyalty, moderation of desires, self-control, and that depict gods and heroes as models of good conduct are all acceptable for education. As far as style is concerned, Plato objects to mimesis or imitation. He feels that imitation will make a person become like the person they are imitating, and this is fine if it is the imitation of good people, but not when a person is imitating a bad person. He believes that imitative writing such as theatrical works of tragedy and comedy should be omitted from this just society. Therefore, Plato will only allow poetry containing the mimesis of good men, or poetry using a simple narrative style. Plato feels that this is all extremely important in order to not corrupt the young guardians.

While there are similarities between Plato’s proposed educational system and the current educational system, it is obvious that the current educational system has moved in a direction far diff

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