In order to make clear the very different ways in which time, as well as the relation between student and teacher takes shape and form with-in education this paper explore two archetypes of teaching: Socratic teaching and Sophist teaching. Here I analyse the distinctly different ways in which power and the organisation of the social sphere take place within each. Socratic teaching is shown to rely on a notion of time as reproduction, which involves reproducing the power structure of a certain social order of inequality. By contrast, Sophist teaching relies on a notion of time as the instantiation of change and equality in the present. The paper concludes with pinpointing that what is at stake in teaching is the possibility of a liveable life for all (Sophist) rather than only for some (Socratic).