The limits of Platonic modelling and moral education: a view from the classroom.

This article critically examines Mark Jonas and Yoshiaki Nakazawa’s *A Platonic Theory of Moral Education*, which proposes that educators can develop students’ moral character by employing Plato’s pedagogical methods to induce epiphanies and guide virtue-oriented rehabituation. The author situates this Platonic approach within the contemporary American educational context, where ethics teaching is limited and often reduced to citizenship values or social-emotional learning, rather than robust character education grounded in philosophical reasoning. While acknowledging the plausibility of Jonas and Nakazawa’s model, the article argues that it offers only a partial and largely descriptive account of moral development, lacking practical guidance for teachers who must navigate complex psychological and pedagogical realities. The author suggests that a more comprehensive moral education requires a normative shift in how individuals’ roles within democratic societies are understood, emphasizing the inseparability of individual and communal flourishing and the need for philosophical engagement to cultivate virtue authentically in students.