Plato’s role in the development of education could be called accidental in a certain sense. He sought to train political technicians who would become the rulers of Athens as part of his utopian concept of how governments should operate, similar to the old aristocratic approach, but he couldn’t have imagined that his model would form the basis of Hellenistic education after the triumph of Macedonia.
Plato built his system on the search for truth and designed it to create an understanding of the science of government superior to the imposter Sophists. His Academy was a fraternal organization of students and teachers who were engaged in the dialectic method as opposed to teaching through indoctrination. His organizational approach learning and personal philosophy are Plato’s great contributions to the history of education.