Emmanuel Mercedes on Aristotle's Politics
This essay was written by Emmanuel, a New York City high school senior, as part of the Freedom and Citizenship summer seminar in 2023. To read more student writing, visit the students' Civic Digest.
In Book VIII of Politics, Aristotle speaks plenty on behalf of what he views as the value, purpose, and means of execution for education. He sees the purpose of education as teaching the youth only the necessary material, which they may then use to aid the state in reaching its end of achieving virtue and happiness. Therefore, education must teach the same to all. And the teachings must be supervised by the whole of the people, not the individual parent. Aristotle says that the “city-state has one single end… education too must be one and the same for all, and its supervision must be communal” (227). Despite Aristotle’s controversial claims about humanity and nature, I coincide with the view he expands on about a more communal polis, in other words, a well-executed, virtuous education system in a harmonious and collaborative society that promotes interconnected assistance between citizens.
This would be the ‘form’ of a city-state. Recorded history points to indigenous cultures in Africa and America that achieved this level of interconnectedness in their communities with more equal opportunities and collaboration from everyone, which benefited the youths and the systems of their society. This proves that these societies were never impossible, maybe it’s just that we’re at a point where scientific advancement has outstripped human virtue. However, there are disputes as to what would promote virtue and produce the good life. Aristotle writes, “For not all consider that the young should learn the same things… whether it is appropriate for education to develop the mind or the soul’s character” (228). The people’s fear, which Aristotle claims was derived from the uncomfortable thought of a standard education, centered around the end of the polis and not their religion. In our modern political system, conservatives, cemented in the Republican Party, push for the idea of homeschooling their children in dread of having their kids exposed to the existence of the LGBTQ community and to critical race theory being implemented in school curriculums. Nevertheless, with approximately eight billion people worldwide, 366+ million in the US, and 8+ million in NYC, it's hard to imagine this kind of community that existed before colonialism, this reshaping of humanity.
