18 Teaching Minds deliberation and the gaining of knowledge that will enhance our abil- ity to reason. But suppose this conception we have of ourselves and our ability to reason logically is simply wrong? Our entire education system depends on this debate. Actually the word debate is really not right here as there is no debate. The other side, the side that says we need to teach our unconscious because our conscious isn’t capable of listening, has not really been expressed di- rectly very often. It is, however, indirectly referred to often enough. Plato comments: The most important part of education is right training in the nursery. The soul of the child in his play should be guided to the love of that sort of excellence in which when he grows up to manhood he will have to be perfected. Why should this be the case? Why should it be in the nursery where real training takes place? And, what kind of training could the nurs- ery provide—the kind of the football coach or the kind of the history teacher? And, what can we learn about education by considering seri- ously what Plato said? The principles of learning in childhood are rather simple really. The first and most important part of an analysis of early childhood learning is an understanding of where the motivation comes from. If learning starts with a goal, as we have said, one question is, What goals do children have and how do they happen to have them? When people mention motivation, the word reward often is added into the discussion. What kinds of rewards do children receive and to what extent are these involved in learning? Bear in mind that there are three kinds of rewards: intrinsic, extrinsic, and systemic. If it makes me happy, I don’t need you to tell me I did well. If the activity doesn’t really matter to me (an algebra test, for example), I will need some outside reward to even try. When do kids learn because of the use of external rewards? If I do well on an algebra test, it might be that it give