In the assigned section of reading from Meno, the discussion is concentrated around the question of learning being entirely a matter of “remembering.” This, of course coming up after Socrates quotes some famous priests of the day. He states that according to them, a person’s soul can never die; that sometimes it comes to an end- most people call it dying- and sometimes it comes back into being, but that it is never destroyed. (pg. 101)
Socrates’s argument then, is that the things we know, and are “taught”, are all things we actually already knew at one point in our former lives and are just remembering. He demonstrates his theory using one of Meno’s slaves. Socrates asks the boy a series of questions regarding geometry, which have the boy confused at first but through being asked more and more questions and using more reasoning and “remembering” as Socrates argues, the boy is able to arrive at the correct answer. If you decide if you agree with this or not will depend on your personal religious beliefs. It does bring up a good question though. If we already know all these things, and are just “remembering” them instead of learning them like we assume, where does that leave schooling and education? Is it therefore a waste of time and money to sit in class when all you are simply doing is “remembering” or do we need someone to tell us what exactly it is that we should be remembering? In that case, how much is one actually “remembering” vs. being told? (learning).
To answer your question: I think that it makes no difference in the end if we remember something or if we learn something; therefore, it is not a waste of time to spend money and time in schools. I come to this conclusion by realizing that the absence of what we either remember or learn is bad. If we want the opposite, what is good, then we must do whatever we can to get what is good into our daily lives. As for how much is remembered vs how much is taught: I think that we are taught more than we learn. I do not remember calculus or chemistry or psychology or philosophy–I learn these subjects. I think we remember good study habits because most of them are common sense. What we do is use education as a vehicle to stir up common sense and practicality and re-instil them into our daily lives.
I agree with what you are saying but from what Socrates was implying, it was almost as if he were saying that the things we are taught, we already know. I am not sure I agree with this anyway, but if it did happen to be the case, wouldn’t schooling therefore be a waste of time? That’s what I was perplexed about. However, I do like how you say education is a vehicle used to “stir” up common sense.