Precis: Shoot for the stars, but remember to come back down to Earth

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses a description of people deprived of knowing "real" reality to explain people without education. Interestingly, their false reality of the "shadow world" is more real and good than true reality, once they are exposed to it. Plato's writing deals with the idea that, once exposed to the good and the light, these people become outsiders to those still living in the dark. Plato does argue that people must experience both light and dark in order to experience true education, however. So, although the light and "truth" may seem to be total and full education in its most positive form, with no need to ever return to the ideas one possessed before seeing "reality," in truth, only knowing and experiencing both states of being constitutes full understanding and education. In essence, Plato feels that sight and knowledge can only come from opening one's vision to all that is around them, instead of only living in the enlightened state above or the ignorant state below.