The History of Education Part 5

THE GREAT MISSION OF ROME. Had Rome tried to impose her rule and her ways and her mode of thought on her subject people, and to reduce them to complete subjection to her, as the modern German and Austrian Empires, for example, tried to do with the peoples who came under their control, the Roman Empire could never have been created, and what would have saved civilization from complete destruction during the period of the barbarian invasions is hard to see. Instead, Rome treated her subjects as her friends, and not as conquered peoples; led them to see that their interests were identical with hers; gave them large local independence and freedom in government, under her strong control of general affairs; opened up her citizenship [4] and the line of promotion in the State to her provincials; [5] and won them to the peace and good order which she everywhere imposed by the advantages she offered through a common language, common law, common coinage, common commercial arrangements, common state service, and the common treatment of all citizens of every race. [6] In consequence, the provincial was willingly absorbed into the common Roman race [7]--absorbed in dress, manners, religion, political and legal inst.i.tutions, family names, and, most important of all, in language.

As a result, race pride and the native tongues very largely disappeared, and Latin became the spoken language of all except the lower cla.s.ses throughout the whole of the Western Empire. Only in the eastern Mediterranean, where the h.e.l.lenic tongue and the h.e.l.lenic civilization still dominated, did the Latin language make but little headway, and here Rome had the good sense not to try to impose her speech or her culture.

Instead she absorbed the culture of the East, while the East accepted in return the Roman government and Roman law, and Latin in time became the language of the courts and of government.

Having stated thus briefly the most prominent characteristics of the Roman people, and indicated their great work for civilization, let us turn back and trace the development of such educational system as existed among them, see in what it consisted, how it modified the life and habits of thinking of the Roman people, and what educational organization or traditions Rome pa.s.sed on to western civilization.

II. THE PERIOD OF HOME EDUCATION

THE EARLY ROMANS AND THEIR TRAINING. In the early history of the Romans there were no schools, and it was not until about 300 B.C. that even primary schools began to develop. What education was needed was imparted in the home or in the field and in the camp, and was of a very simple type. Certain virtues were demanded--modesty, firmness, prudence, piety, courage, seriousness, and regard for duty--and these were instilled both by precept and example. Each home was a center of the religious life, and of civic virtue and authority. In it the father was a high priest, with power of life and death over wife and children. He alone conversed with the G.o.ds and prepared the sacrifices. The wife and mother, however, held a high place in the home and in the training of the children, the marriage tie being regarded as very sacred. She also occupied a respected position in society, and was complete mistress of the house (R. 17).

The religion of the city was an outgrowth of that of the home. Virtue, courage, duty, justice--these became the great civic virtues. Their religion, both family and state, lacked the beauty and stately ceremonial of the Greeks, lacked that lofty faith and aspiration after virtue that characterized the Hebrew and the later Christian faith, was singularly wanting in awe and mystery, and was formal and mechanical and practical [8] in character, but it exercised a great influence on these early peoples and on their conceptions of their duty to the State.

The father trained the son for the practical duties of a man and a citizen; the mother trained the daughter to become a good housekeeper, wife, and mother. Morality, character, obedience to parents and to the State, and whole-hearted service were emphasized. The boy's father taught him to read, write, and count. Stories of those who had done great deeds for the State were told, and martial songs were learned and sung. After 450 B.C. every boy had to learn the Laws of the Twelve Tables (R. 12), and be able to explain their meaning (R. 13). As the boy grew older he followed his father in the fields and in the public place and listened to the conversation of men. [9] If the son of a patrician he naturally learned much more from his father, by reason of his larger knowledge and larger contact with men of affairs and public business, than if he were the son of a plebeian. Through games as a boy, and later in the exercises of the fields and the camps, the boy gained what physical training he received. [10]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19. A ROMAN FATHER INSTRUCTING HIS SON (From a Roman Sarcophagus)]

EDUCATION BY DOING. It was largely an education by doing, as was that of the old Greek period, though entirely different in character. Either by apprenticeship to the soldier, farmer, or statesman, or by partic.i.p.ation in the activities of a citizen, was the training needed imparted. Its purpose was to produce good fathers, citizens, and soldiers. [11] Its ideals were found in the real and practical needs of a small State, where the ability to care for one's self was a necessary virtue. To be healthy and strong, to reverence the G.o.ds and the inst.i.tutions of the State, to obey his parents and the laws, to be proud of his family connections and his ancestors, to be brave and efficient in war, to know how to farm or to manage a business, were the aims and ends of this early training. It produced a nation of citizens who willingly subordinated themselves to the interests of the State, [12] a nation of warriors who brought all Italy under their rule, a calculating, practical people who believed themselves destined to become the conquerors and rulers of the world, and a reserved and proud race, trained to govern and to do business, but not possessed of lofty ideals or large enthusiasms in life (Rs. 15, 16).

III. THE TRANSITION TO SCHOOL EDUCATION

BEGINNINGS OF SCHOOL EDUCATION. Up to about 300 B.C. education had been entirely in the home, and in the activities of the fields and the State.

It was a period of personal valor and stern civic virtue, in a rather primitive type of society, as yet but little in contact with the outside world, and little need of any other type of training had been felt. By the end of the third century B.C., the influence of contact with the Greek cities of southern Italy and Sicily (_Magna Graecia_), and the influence of the extensive conquests of Alexander the Great in the eastern Mediterranean (334-323 B.C.), had begun to be felt in Italy. By that time Greek had become the language of commerce and diplomacy throughout the Mediterranean, and Greek scholars and tradesmen had begun to frequent Rome. By 303 B.C. it seems certain that a few private teachers had set up primary schools at Rome to supplement the home training, and had begun the introduction of the pedagogue as a fashionable adjunct to attract attention to their schools. These schools, however, were only a fad at first, and were patronized only by a few of the wealthy citizens. Up to about 250 B.C., at least, Roman education remained substantially as it had been in the preceding centuries. Reading, writing, declamation, chanting, and the Laws of the Twelve Tables still const.i.tuted the subject-matter of instruction, and the old virtues continued to be emphasized.

By the middle of the third century B.C. Rome had expanded its rule to include nearly all the Italian peninsula (see Figure 16), and was transforming itself politically from a little rural City-State into an Empire, with large world relationships. A knowledge of Greek now came to be demanded both for diplomatic and for business reasons, and the need of a larger culture, to correspond with the increased importance of the State, began to be felt by the wealthier and better-educated cla.s.ses.

Greek scholars, brought in as captured slaves from the Greek colonies of southern Italy, soon began to be extensively employed as teachers and as secretaries.

About 233 B.C., Livius Andronicus, who had been brought to Rome as a slave when Tarentum, one of the Greek cities of southern Italy, was captured, [13] and who later had obtained his freedom, made a translation of the Odyssey into Latin, and became a teacher of Latin and Greek at Rome. This had a wonderful effect in developing schools and a literary atmosphere at Rome. The _Odyssey_ at once became the great school textbook, in time supplanting the Twelve Tables, and literary and school education now rapidly developed. The Latin language became crystallized in form, and other Greek works were soon translated. The beginnings of a native Latin literature were now made. Greek higher schools were opened, many Greek teachers and slaves offered instruction, and the h.e.l.lenic scheme of culture, as it had previously developed in Attica, soon became the fashion at Rome.

CHANGES IN NATIONAL IDEALS. The second century B.C. was even more a period of rapid change in all phases and aspects of Roman life. During this century Rome became a world empire, annexing Spain, Carthage, Illyria, and Greece, and during the century that followed she subjugated northern Africa, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Gaul to the Elbe and the Danube (see Figure 18). Rome soon became mistress of the whole Mediterranean world. Her ships plied the seas, her armies and governors ruled the land. The introduction of wealth, luxuries, and slaves from the new provinces, which followed their capture, soon had a very demoralizing influence upon the people.

Private and public religion and morality rapidly declined; religion came to be an empty ceremonial; divorce became common; wealth and influence ruled the State; slaves became very cheap and abundant, and were used for almost every type of service. From a land of farmers of small farms, st.u.r.dy and self-supporting, who lived simply, reared large families, feared the G.o.ds, respected the State, and made an honest living, it became a land of great estates and wealthy men, and the self-respecting peasantry were transformed into soldiers for foreign wars, or joined the rabble in the streets of Rome. [14] Wealth became the great desideratum, and the great avenue to this was through the public service, either as army commanders and governors, or as public men who could sway the mult.i.tude and command votes and influence. Manifestly the old type of education was not intended to meet such needs, and now in Rome, as previously in Athens, a complete transformation in the system of training for the young took place. The imaginative and creative Athenians, when confronted by a great change in national ideals, evolved a new type of education adapted to the new needs of the time; the unimaginative and practical Romans merely adopted that which the Athenians had created.

THE h.e.l.lENIZATION OF ROME. The result was the h.e.l.lenization of the intellectual life of Rome, making complete the h.e.l.lenization of the Mediterranean world. After the fall of Greece, in 146 B.C., a great influx of educated Greeks took place. As the Latin poet Horace expressed it:

Captive Greece took captive her rude conqueror, And brought the arts to Latium.

So completely did the Greek educational system seem to meet the needs of the changed Roman State that at first the Greek schools were adopted bodily--Greek language, pedagogue, higher schools of rhetoric and philosophy, and all--and the schools were in reality Greek schools but slightly modified to meet the needs of Rome. _Gymnasia_ were erected, and wealthy Romans, as well as youths, began to spend their leisure in studying Greek and in trying to learn gymnastic exercises.

In time the national pride and practical sense of the Romans led them to open so-called "culture schools" of their own, modeled after the Greek.

The Latin language then replaced the Greek as the vehicle of instruction, though Greek was still studied extensively, and Rome began the development of a system of private-school instruction possessing some elements that were native to Roman life and Roman needs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 20. CATO THE ELDER (234-149 B.C.)]

STRUGGLE AGAINST, AND FINAL VICTORY. That this great change in national ideals and in educational practice was accepted without protest should not be imagined. Plutarch and other writers appealed to the family as the center for all true education. Cato the elder, who died in 149 B.C., labored hard to stem the h.e.l.lenic tide. He wrote the first Roman book on education, in part to show what education a good citizen needed as an orator, husbandman, jurist, and warrior, and in part as a protest against h.e.l.lenic innovations. In 167 B.C., the first library was founded in Rome, with books brought from Greece by the conqueror Paulus Emilius. In 161 B.C., the Roman Senate directed the Praetor to see "that no philosophers or rhetoricians be suffered in Rome" (R. 20 a), but the edict could not be enforced. In 92 B.C., the Censors issued an edict expressing their disapproval of such schools (R. 20 b). By 100 B.C., the h.e.l.lenic victory was complete, and the Graeco-Roman school system had taken form. In 27 B.C., Rome ceased to be a Republic and became an Empire, and under the Emperors the professors of the new learning were encouraged and protected, higher schools were established in the provinces, literature and philosophy were opened as possible careers, and the Greek language, literature, and learning were spread, under Roman imperial protection, to every corner of the then civilized world. This victory of h.e.l.lenic thought and learning at Rome, viewed in the light of the future history of the civilization of the world, was an event of large importance.

IV. THE SCHOOL SYSTEM AS FINALLY ESTABLISHED

THE LUDUS, OR PRIMARY SCHOOL. The elementary school, known as the _ludus_, or _ludus literarum_, the teacher of which was known as a _ludi magister_, was the beginning or primary school of the scheme as finally evolved. This corresponded to the school of the Athenian _grammatist_, and like it the instruction consisted of reading, writing, and counting. These schools were open to both s.e.xes, but were chiefly frequented by boys. They were entered at the age of seven, sometimes six, and covered the period up to twelve. Reading and writing were taught by much the same methods as in the Greek schools, and approximately the same writing materials were used.

Something of the same difficulty was experienced also in mastering the reading art (R. 21). Dionysius of Halicarna.s.sus, a Greek historian who lived in Rome for twenty-two years, during the first century B.C., has left us a clear description of the Roman method of teaching reading:

When we learned to read was it not necessary at first to know the name of the letters, their shape, their value in syllables, their differences, then the words and their case, their quant.i.ty long or short, their accent, and the rest?

Arrived at this point we began to read and write, slowly at first and syllable by syllable. Some time afterwards, the forms being sufficiently engraved on our memory, we read more cursorily, in the elementary book, then in all sorts of books, finally with incredible quickness and without making any mistake.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21. ROMAN WRITING-MATERIALS.

Inkstand, pen, letter, box of ma.n.u.scripts, wax tablets, stylus.]

Writing seems rather to have followed reading, and, as in the Greek schools, the pupils copied down from dictation and made their own books (_dictata_). Literature received no such emphasis in the elementary schools of Rome as in those of the Greeks, and the _palaestra_ of the Greeks was not reproduced at Rome.

Due in part to the practical character of the Roman people, to the established habit of keeping careful household accounts, to the difficulties of their system of calculation, [15] to the practice of finger reckoning, and to the vast commercial and financial interests that the Romans formed throughout the world which they conquered, arithmetic became a subject of fundamental importance in their schools, and much time was given to securing perfection in calculation and finger reckoning. [16]

Hence it occupied a place of large importance in the primary school. An abacus or counting-board was used, similar to the one shown in Figure 22, and Horace mentions a bag of stones (_calculi_) as a part of a schoolboy's equipment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22. A ROMAN COUNTING-BOARD.

Pebbles were used, those nearest the numbered dividing part.i.tion being counted. Each pebble above when moved downward counted five of those in the same division below. The board now shows 8,760,254.]

THE _LUDI MAGISTER_. The _ludi magister_ at Rome held a position even less enviable than that held by the _grammatist_ at Athens. "The starveling Greek," who was glad to barter his knowledge for the certainty of a good dinner, was sneered at by many Roman writers. Many slaves were engaged in this type of instruction, bringing in fees for their owners. It was not regarded as of importance that the teachers of these schools be of high grade. The establishment of and attendance at these primary schools was wholly voluntary, and the children in them probably represented but a small percentage of those of school age in the total population. These schools became quite common in the Italian cities, and in time were found in the provincial cities of the Empire as well. They remained, however, entirely private-adventure undertakings, the State doing nothing toward encouraging their establishment, supervising the instruction in them, or requiring attendance at them. They were in no sense free schools, nor were the prices for instruction fixed, as in our private schools of to-day.

Instead, the pupil made a present to the master, usually at some understood rate, though some masters left the size of the fee to the liberality of their pupils. [17] The pedagogue, copied from Greece, was nearly always an old or infirm slave of the family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23. A ROMAN PRIMARY SCHOOL(_Ludus_) (From a fresco found at Herculaneum). This shows a school held in a portico of a house.]

The schools were held anywhere--in a portico (see Figure 23), in a shed or booth in front of a house, in a store, or in a recessed corner shut in by curtains. A chair for the master, benches for the pupils, an outer room for cloaks and for the pedagogues to wait in, and a bundle of rods (_ferula_) const.i.tuted the necessary equipment. The pupils brought with them boxes containing writing-materials, book-rolls, and reckoning-stones.

Schools began early in the morning, pupils in winter going with lanterns to their tasks. There was much flogging of children, and in Martial we find an angry epigram which he addressed to a schoolmaster who disturbed his sleep (R. 23 a).

THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS. Secondary or Latin grammar schools, under a _grammaticus_, and covering instruction from the age of twelve to sixteen, had become clearly differentiated from the primary schools under a _ludi magister_ by the time of the death of Cato, 149 B.C. At first this higher instruction began in the form of private tutors, probably in the homes of the wealthy, and Greek was the language taught. By the beginning of the first century B.C., however, Latin secondary schools began to arise, and in time these too spread to all the important cities of the Empire.

Attendance at them was wholly voluntary, and was confined entirely to the children of the well-to-do cla.s.ses. The teachers were Greeks, or Latins who had been trained by the Greeks. Each teacher taught as he wished, but the schools throughout the Empire came to be much the same in character.

The course of study consisted chiefly of instruction in grammar and literature, the purpose being to secure such a mastery of the Latin language and Greek and Latin literatures as might be most helpful in giving that broader culture now recognized as the mark of an educated man, and in preparing the young Roman to take up the life of an orator and public official (R. 24). Both Greek and Latin secondary schools were in existence, and Quintilian, the foremost Roman writer on educational practice, recommends attendance at the Greek school first.

Grammar was studied first, and was intended to develop correctness in the use of speech. With its careful study of words, phonetic changes, drill on inflections, and practice in composing and paragraphing, this made a strong appeal to the practical Roman and became a favorite study.

Literature followed, and was intended to develop an appreciation for literary style, elevate thought, expand one's knowledge, and, by memorization and repet.i.tion, to train the powers of expression. The method practiced was much as follows: The selection was carefully read first by the teacher, and then by the pupils. [18] After the reading the selection was gone over again and the historical, geographical, and mythological allusions were carefully explained by the teacher. [19] The text was next critically examined, to point out where and how it might be improved and its expressions strengthened, and much paraphrasing of it was engaged in.

Finally the study of the selection was rounded out by _a judgment_--that is, a critical estimate of the work, a characterization of the author's style, and a resume of his chief merits and defects. The foundations were here laid for Grammar and Rhetoric as the great studies of the Middle Ages.

Homer and Menander were the favorite authors in Greek, and Vergil, Horace, Sall.u.s.t, and Livy in Latin, with much use of _Aesop's Fables_ for work in composition. The pupils made their own books from dictation, though in later years educated slave labor became so cheap that the copying and sale of books was organized into a business at Rome, and it was possible for the children of wealthy parents to own their own books. Grammar, composition, elocution, ethics, history, mythology, and geography were all comprehended in the instruction in grammar and literature in the secondary schools. A little music was added at times, to help the pupil intone his reading and declamation. A little geometry and astronomy were also included, for their practical applications. The athletic exercises of the Greeks were rejected, as contributing to immorality and being a waste of time and strength. In a sense these schools were finishing schools for Roman youths who went to any school at all, much as are our high schools of to-day for the great bulk of American children. The schools were better housed than those of the _ludi_, and the masters were of a better quality and received larger fees. Like the elementary schools, the State exercised no supervision or control over these schools or the teachers or pupils in them.

THE SCHOOLS OF RHETORIC. Up to this point the schools established had been for practical and useful information (the primary schools) or cultural (the grammar or secondary schools). On top of these a higher and professional type of school was next developed, to train youths in rhetoric and oratory, preparatory to the great professions of law and public life at Rome. [20] These schools were direct descendants of the Greek rhetorical schools, which evolved from the schools of the Sophists.

Suetonius [21] tells us that:

Rhetoric, also, as well as grammar, was not introduced amongst us till a late period, and with still more difficulty, inasmuch as we find that, at times, the practice of it was even prohibited. [22] ...

However, by slow degrees, rhetoric manifested itself to be a useful and honorable study, and many persons devoted themselves to it both as a means of defense and of acquiring a reputation. In consequence, public favor was so much attracted to the study of rhetoric that a vast number of professional and learned men devoted themselves to it; and it flourished to such a degree that some of them raised themselves by it to the rank of senators and to the highest offices.

These schools, the teachers of which were known as _rhetors_, furnished a type of education representing a sort of collegiate education for the period. They were oratorical in purpose, because the orator had become the Roman ideal of a well-educated man (R. 24). During the life of the Republic the orator found many opportunities for the constructive use of his ability, and all young men ambitious to enter law or politics found the training of these schools a necessary prerequisite. They were attended for two or three years by boys over sixteen, but only the wealthier and more aristocratic families could afford to send their boys to them.

In addition to oratorical and some legal training, these schools included a further linguistic and literary training, some mathematical and scientific knowledge, and even some philosophy. The famous "Seven Liberal Arts" of the Middle Ages--Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic; Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy--all seem to have been included in the instruction of these schools. [23] The great studies, though, were the first three and some Law, Music being studied largely to help with gestures and to train the voice, Geometry to aid in settling lawsuits relating to land, Dialectic (logic) to aid in detecting fallacies, and Astronomy to understand the movements of the heavenly bodies and the references of literary writers. [24] There was much work in debate and in the declamation of ethical and political material the fine distinctions in Roman Law and Ethics were brought out, [25] and there was much drill in preparing and delivering speeches and much attention given to the factors involved in the preparation and delivery of a successful oration (R. 25).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24. A ROMAN SCHOOL OF RHETORIC.

This picture, which has been drawn from a description, shows a much better type of school than that of the _ludi_.]

These schools became very popular as inst.i.tutions of higher learning, and continued so even after the later Emperors, by seizing the power of the State, had taken away the inspiration that comes from a love of freedom and had thus deprived the rhetorical art of practical value. The work of the schools then became highly stilted and artificial in character, and oratory then came to be cultivated largely as a fine art. [26] Men educated in these schools came to boast that they could speak with equal effectiveness on either side of any question, and the art came to depend on the use of many and big words and on the manners of the stage. Such ideals naturally destroyed the value of these schools, and stopped intellectual progress so far as they contributed to it.