"Meno"--Recollection v. Learning

At first in our reading of "Meno" on virtue and whether it can be taught, I was stuck on Socrates' claim that, "searching and learning as a whole are recollection" (81d); and later when Meno asks Socrates to teach him how this is so, Socrates' response, "I just now said, Meno, that you are a rascal, and now you're asking if I can teach you-I who assert that there is no learning but only recollection" (82a). The reason I couldn't get past this claim was because my definition of teaching was not parrallel to Socrates' use of the word. Since there is no learning there would be no teaching, and this did not make sense to me. My definition of teaching was to give one knowledge with the intention that they would learn from the knowledge you were giving them. Both "teaching" and "learning" are used in my definition. However, Socrates use of teaching is without the variable of "learning" altogether. His would go something like, teaching is guiding someone to gain knowledge through their own discovery; recollection being the middle point between no knowledge and some knowledge. This definition of teaching causes the student to be more active because surely you can't just give someone knowledge, they have to "recollect" it through self-discovery and application.

Socrates also states that these tools of self-discovery and some knowledge itself are already embedded within us whether from a previous life or inherently in our souls, "So if the truth about the beings is always present for us in the soul, would the soul be immortal such that, with respect to what you now happen not to know-and this is what you don't remember-you should be confident in attemption to inquire into it and recollect it?" (86b). I love that line because it shows that if one believes that either they know something or they don't, but just wait for someone to come and give them knowledge, then they're lazy. If one knows they already have the capabilities then they will be braver to go for discovering what it is that they don't know.

Towards the end of Meno, I was interested in a line in 100b, "on the basis of this calculation, Meno, it's manifest to us that virtue comes to be present, in those in whom it is present, by divine allotment." This line forced me to question whether God could then be considered the teacher and we the students, and within that relationship would we be "recollecting" or "learning"? Learning an option because this quote seems to imply that there is a giving of knowledge involved.