Greek Influence on Roman education
The Greek influence on Roman Education
The early Roman education was not as sophisticated compared to other ancient civilisations including those that we have examined already. This however was bound to undergo tremendous transformation once it came into contact with the Greek civilization. The opportunity for interaction of the two cultures presented itself through trade and military conquests. The Romans at first encountered the Greek culture in the Greek colonies of Sicily and southern Italy. The Roman traders and officials adopted the Greek culture because of its superiority and quickly set out to learn the language, thought and literature. The captured slaves played a crucial role as teachers (litteratores) in this process. This was followed by the language teachers, the grammatici who taught the Roman children to read, write and speak Greek. These activities initially took place in the home but with time the state developed educational policies that put education under its control. At this point, the Greeks had given the Romans a model for a formal education system. The new Roman education was therefore patterned on that of the Greek schools with a three tier system.
Elementary schools that catered for boys between the ages of 7- 12 years emerged towards the end of 300 BC. These schools were called Ludus and were directed by a teacher, ludi magister or litterator. The boys were taught skills in 3Rs and Homer's odyssey translated into Latin. The boys were also accompanied to school by slaves or pedagogues who were mostly Greek who also acted as tutors to the boys. The schools were private with no state supervision and did emphasize on strict discipline and the use of corporal punishment.
Secondary schools were the equivalent of the Greek grammar schools that developed in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. They catered for boys between the ages of 10- 16 years under the grammaticus who taught Greek grammar, composition, poetry, and history. In addition, the boys were also taught Roman vernacular, Latin grammar. The boys had to attend both schools. With time; grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy were taught to the boys.
The third level of schools was known as rhetorical schools which attracted 16-18 year old youths. They started around 100 BC to train orators especially politicians to control crowds, influence voting in senate as well as inspire troops during times of war. The orator to the Romans was a model of an educated person who had a strong interest in the affairs of the Republic.
Quintilian (AD 35-95)
Quintilian was the most influential educational thinker among the Romans who was mostly concerned with the education of orators. The ideas on the same were outlined in his major work, Institutio Oratoria, a treatise on the theory and practice of rhetorical studies written around AD 94. Of critical importance to teachers today was Quintilian's assertion that the stages of human development are important and should be considered in educational practice. His discussion identified three distinct stages with corresponding educational activities.
From birth to 7 years, Quintilian argued that the actions of the child are directed to the satisfaction of the child's immediate needs and desires. That early childhood years are important for future educational activities and parents therefore ought to give proper care to the child, The parents are supposed to employ the right nurses, pedagogues and companions, people who can influence the child in the right way since children always imitate their nurses and also retain best what the learn first. Accordingly, those who interact with the child at this level ought to be forthright because it is difficult to unlearn bad habits. He called on the parents not to stifle the child's learning by keeping him at home for too long and set high targets at an early age since the child's curiosity is always killed by lack of proper care and guidance. Quintilian discouraged private tuition where teachers taught only one child as a waste of time and talent and instead advocated for group learning that enabled the young to benefit from one another. Such sessions, he argued were important for the friction of the mind. However, Quintilian also discouraged the teaching of too many pupils as it was difficult to manage them.
The second stage involved children from 7- 14 years where a child learns from sense experience. The child at this stage starts to form clear ideas and develops the memory and therefore should learn how to read and write the languages. The teacher has to be of good character and competent to make learning attractive to the child. In addition, the content ought to be relevant to the child's intellectual ability and level of interest. He also talked about the learning readiness principle and advised teachers to approach their teaching in stages, step by step instruction as well as use of drill and stimulation. Teachers were called upon to make learning stress free through recreation and intervals of rest to relax the mind and redirect the learner's energy. He argued that productive learning stems from the child's disposition to his studies and therefore called for holidays, work and play but with moderation to avoid idleness. Although Quintilian wanted teachers to take the discipline of the child seriously by being stern and severe equating moderate discipline with mediocrity on the side of the teacher, he advised teachers to avoid corporal punishment which according to him was only meant for slaves. He stated that flogging hardened the individual thus making him less receptive to training and education. Teachers were therefore advised to avoid the use of unnecessary force in disciplining children.
Education in the third stage catered for boys between 14-17 years of age where they studied liberal arts to develop the reasoning abilities. Children studied both Greek and Latin grammars concurrently after which they started preparing for rhetoric through the study of music, geometry, astronomy and gymnastics. They then embarked on rhetorical studies which aimed at producing a man of broad culture, humanely educated and ready to serve his society. These studies were not just meant to train a perfect speaker but an individual with noble ideals. They studied all liberal arts including; poetry, drama, prose, history, law, philosophy and rhetoric. They also engaged in speaking practices for correction by the teachers while the weak ones were dismissed.
The significance of Quintilian's educational ideas can be seen in terms of information with regard to Roman education as well as the influence to the teaching profession especially on the stages of human development that are very important in the area of psychology
marto answered the question on March 19, 2019 at 08:43