The Case for Sheltering a Child from Knowledge of Wickedness

Notes from Plato’s Republic Book III on Stories for Children

It is a matter of great debate whether and how much wickedness ought to be shown to a child. It is argued by some that keeping a child “too sheltered” in his youth will make him more vulnerable to exploitation and injustice as more worldly people take advantage of him. Children who are “street smart” are considered to be more cunning and therefore less likely to be exploited. But does this really produce in a child the kind of wisdom that leads him to truly reap the rewards of a good life or does it lead him to a life circling the drain of the petty wickedness he was exposed to early on?

When Socrates, in Plato’s Republic, talks about the Guardians who will protect the ideal city, it quickly becomes evident that he is talking about the ideal person because the Guardian is expected to be perfect in every virtue and deficient in none. This is very similar to when fairy tales cast a Prince or Princess, a King or Queen, as the protagonist because in the logic of the fairy tale, nobility is not merely a matter of blood and status but is rather symbolic of the apotheosis of human nobility in spirit.