ABSTRACT
“The beginning, as you know, is always the most important part” (Plato, Republic, 11.377 ( Cornford, 1941, p. 68)). Only if we get the first steps right, Plato argued, can we set the child on the proper path to educated adulthood. In order to succeed we must know clearly, to use his terms, the direction in which the eyes of the soul must be turned. So the beginning, and each step of the journey, is governed by our understanding of the proper aim of education.
