Читать книгу The History of Education - Ellwood Patterson Cubberley - Страница 17

Some form of education that would train the son of the citizen for participation in the religious observances and duties of a citizen of the State, and would prepare the State for defense against outward enemies, was everywhere in Greece recognized as a public necessity, though its provision, nature, and extent varied in the different City-States. We have clear information only as to Sparta and Athens, and will consider only these two as types. Sparta is interesting as representing the old Greek tribal training, from which Sparta never progressed. Many of the other Greek City-States probably maintained a system of training much like that of Sparta. Such educational systems stand as undesirable examples of extreme state socialism, contributed little to our western civilization, and need not detain us long. It was Athens, and a few other City-States which followed her example, which presented the best of Greece and passed on to the modern world what was most valuable for civilization.

1. Education in Sparta

THE PEOPLE. The system of training which was maintained in Sparta was in part a reflection of the character of the people, and in part a result of its geographical location. A warlike people by nature, the Spartans were for long regarded as the ablest fighters in Greece. Laconia, their home, was a plain surrounded by mountains. They represented but a small percentage of the total population, which they held in subjection to them by their military power. [8] The slaves (Helots) were often troublesome, and were held in check by many kinds of questionable practices. Education for citizenship with the Spartans meant education for usefulness in an intensely military State, where preparedness was a prerequisite to safety. Strength, courage, endurance, cunning, patriotism, and obedience were the virtues most highly prized, while the humane, literary, and artistic sentiments were neglected (R. I). Aristotle well expressed it when he said that "Sparta prepared and trained for war, and in peace rusted like a sword in its scabbard."

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. At birth the child was examined by a council of elders (R. I), and if it did not appear to be a promising child it was exposed to die in the mountains. If kept, the mother had charge of the child until seven if a boy, and still longer if a girl. At the beginning of the eighth year, and until the boy reached the age of eighteen, he lived in a public barrack, where he was given little except physical drill and instruction in the Spartan virtues. His food and clothing were scant and his bed hard. Each older man was a teacher. Running, leaping, boxing, wrestling, military music, military drill, ball-playing, the use of the spear, fighting, stealing, and laconic speech and demeanor constituted the course of study. From eighteen to twenty was spent in professional training for war, and frequently the youth was publicly whipped to develop his courage and endurance. For the next ten years—that is, until he was thirty years old—he was in the army at some frontier post. At thirty the young man was admitted to full citizenship and compelled to marry, though continuing to live at the public barrack and spending his energies in training boys (R. 1). Women and girls were given gymnastic training to make them strong and capable of bearing strong children. The family was virtually suppressed in the interests of defense and war. [9] The intellectual training consisted chiefly in committing to memory the Laws of Lycurgus, learning a few selections from Homer, and listening to the conversation of the older men.

As might naturally be supposed, Sparta contributed little of anything to art, literature, science, philosophy, or government. She left to the world some splendid examples of heroism, as for example the sacrifice of Leonidas and his Spartans to hold the pass at Thermopylae, and a warning example of the brutalizing effect on a people of excessive devotion to military training. It is a pleasure to turn from this dark picture to the wonderful (for the time) educational system that was gradually developed at Athens.

2. The old Athenian education

SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. Athenian education divides itself naturally into two divisions—the old Athenian training which prevailed up to about the time of the close of the Persian Wars (479 B.C.) and was an outgrowth of earlier tribal observances and practices, and later Athenian education, which characterized the period of maximum greatness of Athens and afterward. We shall describe these briefly, in order.

The state military socialism of Sparta made no headway in more democratic Attica. The citizens were too individualistic, and did their own thinking too well to permit the establishment of any such plan. While education was a necessity for citizenship, and the degree could not be obtained without it, the State nevertheless left every citizen free to make his own arrangements for the education of his sons, or to omit such education if he saw fit. Only instruction in reading, writing, music, and gymnastics were required. If family pride, and the sense of obligation of a parent and a citizen were not sufficient to force the father to educate his son, the son was then by law freed from the necessity of supporting his father in his old age. The State supervised education, but did not establish it.

The teachers were private teachers, and derived their livelihood from fees. These naturally varied much with the kind of teacher and the wealth of the parent, much as private lessons in music or dancing do to-day. As was common in antiquity, the teachers occupied but a low social position (R. 5), and only in the higher schools of Athens was their standing of any importance. Greek literature contains many passages which show the low social status of the schoolmaster. [10] Schools were open from dawn to dark. The school discipline was severe, the rod being freely used both in the school and in the home. There were no Saturday and Sunday holidays or long vacations, such as we know, but about ninety festival and other state holidays served to break the continuity of instruction (R. 3). The schoolrooms were provided by the teachers, and were wholly lacking in teaching equipment, in any modern sense of the term. However, but little was needed. The instruction was largely individual instruction, the boy coming, usually in charge of an old slave known as a pedagogue, to receive or recite his lessons. The teaching process was essentially a telling and a learning-by-heart procedure.

For the earlier years there were two schools which boys attended—the music and literary school, and a school for physical training. Boys probably spent part of the day at one school and part at the other, though this is not certain. They may have attended the two schools on alternate days. From sixteen to eighteen, if his parents were able, the boy attended a state-supported gymnasium, where an advanced type of physical training was given. As this was preparatory for the next two years of army service, the gymnasia were supported by the State more as preparedness measures than as educational institutions, though they partook of the nature of both.

[Illustration: FIG. 5. A GREEK BOY]

EARLY CHILDHOOD. As at Sparta the infant was examined at birth, but the father, and not a council of citizens, decided whether or not it was to be "exposed" or preserved. Three ceremonies, of ancient tribal origin, marked the recognition and acceptance of the child. The first took place five days after birth, when the child was carried around the family hearth by the nurse, followed by the household in procession. This ceremony, followed by a feast, was designed to place the child forever under the care of the family gods. On the tenth day the child was named by the father, who then formally recognized the child as his own and committed himself to its rearing and education. The third ceremony took place at the autumn family festival, when all children born during the preceding year were presented to the father's clansmen, who decided, by vote, whether or not the boy or girl was the legitimate and lawful child of Athenian parents. If approved, the child's name was entered on the registry of the clan, and he might then aspire to citizenship and inherit property from his parent (R. 4).