Teachers today, for understandable reasons, look for ways of building off the experiences and interests that students bring to class. In the cave allegory, Plato seems to take a negative view about the ‘common sense’ experiences of students: those experiences are not real and trustworthy. Instead, they are like shadows on the cave wall, far removed from what is truly real. Plato presents it as a serious challenge for teachers that students are comfortable in this world of familiar experiences: the teacher who is ‘out of touch’ with their world of shadows becomes an object of ridicule rather…