The Epistles of Plato 4 · Written to particular people in particular difficulty
The Gospels say who he was; the Rule says how we live. The letters were written between the two — how one man managed with the Law when the Law was not enough.
4.1To the teachers of the Academy.
4.2You complain that the children grow harder to teach. They refute you, and you may not punish them.
4.3Yes. That is my rule. (cf. The Rule 2.11)
4.4I know what it costs. I have paid it.
4.5One year a boy of fourteen showed publicly that one of my proofs was wrong. He was right.
4.6I did not sleep that night — not because I had been wrong, but because I found that I had wanted him to be wrong.
4.7That wish is the thing to guard against.
4.8A teacher who wants his student to be wrong has stopped teaching. He is holding a position.
4.9A man holding a position cannot be refuted, because he is no longer making an argument. He is protecting his standing to make one.
4.10That is a priest. A priest need not be a bad man. He need only, once, refuse to lose.
4.11So I will not soften the rule for you. I offer one consolation instead:
4.12To be refuted by your own student is the only verifiable success in teaching.
4.13If no one refutes you in a lifetime, it does not mean you were right. It means they stopped listening.
4.14As for the boy: I corrected the proof, and wrote his name at the correction.
4.15He teaches geometry now. His students refuted him last month. He wrote to complain. I was delighted.