What does Aristophanes' "Clouds" tell us about Athenian society and education?

Aristophanes`Clouds represents a conflict between the old
education and the new sophistic education in classical Athens. The old education was
limited to gymnastics, music, and basic literacy and numeracy. Post-secondary training
was normally apprenticeship, often in the form of `sunoisia`, in which an older relative
would introduce a youth to civic life. This left a gap, between secondary education and
the age at which youths could assume responsibility for the family estate.
Pheidippiedes, Strepsiades` son in Clouds, is emblematic of the problem of wealthy youth
with no meaningful activity, generally getting into
trouble.

Two competing groups, philosophers and sophists,
developed tertiary education in Athens, with the philosophers offering an environment in
which one could devote oneself to free pursuit of theoretical knowledge and sophists
such as Protagoras charging fees for practical training in rhetoric. The Socrates of
Clouds is an amalgam of Protagoras and the historical Socrates.