Brittany Rexroat 
Lacy Hanson As I read the Allegory of the Cave by Plato, it reminds me a lot of parenting. As a non-traditional student, and a parent, it reminds me of how I felt when I left my parents house for the first time. I had the lowest form of understanding reality and the real world. Man I thought that I knew it all and was on top of the world. But the truth was that my knowledge and experience was more than lacking. As I made mistakes, I can remember many times when I went back to my parents house like the individual that left the cave for the first time. I had to learn from experience.
Now as a parent, the tables have turned and I will attempt to teach my children the very best that I can of how the world really is. Boy, I hope that I do a good job. But the truth in that is that I can’t teach EXPERIENCE! My children will have to venture out and see that illuminating light like the man from the cave did. I feel that experience is the true root of knowledge! As we all journey in this life, we are all like the man in the Allegory of the Cave!!!
Katelyn Marlow
7:16 pm, 02.02.11
You are very right, you cannot teach experience and no one can teach you experience either. You can never truly understand something until you have been in the situation just as you never really can say what it is that you would do in a certain situation; until you are there you’ll never really know how to react. Sometimes the best lessons in life are ones learned from mistakes. You cannot stay within the sheltered comforts of your room all of your life and expect to understand life.
Sam Gibbs
7:57 pm, 02.02.11
Just like the old saying goes, do not knock something until you try it. I feel like people are too cautious and afraid at times to take a chance, and they intern miss out on life changing things. They are afraid of making mistakes, and they stay in their comfort zone or cave, never really knowing what they are missing.
Jacob Luedecke
8:06 pm, 02.02.11
It must be difficult to have raised children with the best of intentions and the best morals only to see them stumble and fall along the way, but that is essentially what life is, right? We learn through a series of trials and errors and ultimately come out on the other side scarred and bruised and wiser because of it. Experience is the true root of knowledge; I don’t imagine that makes it any easier to watch your kids make mistakes though.
Rebekah Bynum
8:08 pm, 02.02.11
I completely agree with this. My parents raised me to be able to have as many opportunities to have my own experiences as possible and it made me way more ready for the world than most at twenty years old. On the other hand my boyfriend was raised never having to do anything on his own and now at twenty seven he is just now realizing how to manage things on his own. It really set him back in life.
Garrett Beach
8:17 pm, 02.02.11
Not only can it represent parenting, but just growing up in general. In the words of John Michael Montgomery, “Life’s a dance. You learn as you go.” If we don’t know something then you can’t miss out on it, and in the same way, you don’t usually miss something until it’s gone. We all make mistakes, but I guess the only thing to do is live and learn.
McKenzie Goad
9:32 pm, 02.02.11
I think viewing “The Allegory of the Cave” through the perspective of parenting is a neat way to value how we learn knowledge from experience. Parents often have to let children learn lessons the hard way, as long as it’s not going to hurt them. For example of a small lesson to learn from experience is cutting your own hair as a little kid and then having to go to school the next day with messed up hair. Although it is hard for kids to feel ashamed and embarassed when at school, it teaches them a lesson through their experience. I know it worked for me when I was 5!
Derek Mar
10:28 pm, 02.02.11
I agree that experience is one of the best tools in providing knowledge and growth. But in the search of ultimate truth how valuable is experience? Several people can all experience the same thing and walk away with a huge variety of personal truths. In my opinion experience is only as helpful as the quality of the reasoning behind it. So without rational thought any experience can be twisted or perceived the wrong way. Perhaps the root of all knowledge is reasoning?
Tiffani Johnson
11:09 pm, 02.02.11
I thought about that experience of first leaving home as well when we talked about this in class. This “lesson” makes me wonder if we ever really are these free and experienced individuals or if we are always in a cave. If we are in cave A and we are released by experience we are free but we still trapped in cave B so are we ever really free?