History of Education, Levi Seeley [short novels in english txt] 📗

While these were Cicero's most important pedagogical teachings, he also taught many other truths valuable in education. Among them are these: that education begins in childhood, and is a steady growth throughout life; that memory should be cultivated by learning extracts from classic authors; that great care should be taken to make the amusements and environments of the child such as to elevate and refine, as well as properly to develop its powers; that at the suitable time some calling should be chosen for which the youth has evident fitness; that religion is the basis of morals, therefore careful attention should be given to religious instruction.

SENECA (B.C. 3-A.D. 65)

Seneca was one of the most distinguished men that Rome produced. Even as a boy he showed remarkable talent, and his father furnished him the best educational opportunities by placing him under the greatest masters in the city. He also had the benefit of travel in Greece and Egypt, after which he practiced law in Rome. The student of education is interested in Seneca chiefly as the tutor of Nero, who was committed to his charge at the age of eleven. Without doubt the lad had already formed vicious habits, as his teacher had great trouble in managing him; nor did Seneca eradicate those evil tendencies which bore such terrible fruit in Nero's later years.

Nero retained his love for his teacher for a long time, keeping him as a trusted counselor for several years. Seneca drew up all of Nero's state papers, among others one defending the crime of matricide, Nero having put his own mother to death. This brought deserved odium upon Seneca's name. It indicates that he was a time-server, lacking moral independence and firmness. This may explain his failure in the training of his royal pupil. Nero himself wearied of his old teacher and friend, and condemned him to death. Seneca, however, committed suicide, a mode of death quite in accord with his Stoic philosophy.

Seneca was the most eminent writer, rhetorician, and orator of his time. He anticipated many modern ethical teachings, and in some of his writings we find a strong religious sentiment, quite like that of Christianity, leading one to think that he may have been influenced by Christ and his disciples, with whom he was contemporary. On the other hand, some of his teachings are decidedly repulsive to Christianity.

Seneca's Pedagogy.—1. Like Cicero, he believed that punishment should be mild and reasonable. "Who condemns quickly, condemns willingly; and who punishes too much, punishes improperly."

2. The office of education is to correct the evil tendencies in the child.

3. The character of each child must be studied, and each individual should be developed according to his peculiarities.

4. Do not flatter the child, but teach him truthfulness, modesty, and respect for his elders.

5. Take great care that the environment of the child is elevating, and allow only pure and ennobling examples to be reflected before him.

6. Give the child but few studies, in order that he may be thorough and acquire right habits of learning.

7. The office of teacher is one of the most important of all offices. "What the teacher, who instructs us in the sciences, imparts to us in noble effort and intellectual culture, is worth more than he receives; for, not the matter, but the trouble; not the desert, but only the labor, is paid for.... Such a man, who consecrates his whole being to our good, and who awakens our dormant faculties, is deserving all the esteem that we give a benevolent physician or our most loved and dearest kindred."

QUINTILIAN[26]

No other Roman contributed so much pedagogy to the world as Quintilian. He was born in Spain, but early moved to Rome, in order to be trained in the atmosphere of culture which that city alone afforded. His education was conducted by his father, a celebrated rhetorician, to whom he owed the particular direction of his powers which afterward made him so famous. He chose the law as a profession, because it offered the best opportunity for the exercise of oratory. Not finding the practice of law congenial, he soon abandoned it, and devoted his time to teaching. He founded a school at Rome, and conducted it with great success for twenty years, having for pupils children from the most distinguished patrician families. Among these were the grandnephews of Domitian, possible heirs to the throne. This was the best school in Rome at that time. Vespasian honored Quintilian by creating for him a chair of rhetoric and conferring upon him the title "Professor of Oratory." This is the first instance in history of State endowment of a chair for teaching a specific subject. Royal recognition was not without effect upon the fortunes of Quintilian, as it placed him in the front rank of the teachers of Rome. This, together with his subject, the teaching and mastery of which were considered by the Romans to be the climax of education, enabled him to wrest supremacy from the Greek teachers who so long had enjoyed a monopoly of teaching in the city.

When fifty-three years of age, Quintilian retired from his school, and devoted himself to authorship. In the first two books of his great work, "Institutes of Oratory,"[27] he sets forth his ideas on education. This is the most remarkable treatise on education bequeathed to us by antiquity.

He taught that as oratory was the climax of Roman education, especial attention should be given to it. He was not in sympathy with the prevailing use that was made of oratory. Oratorical contests were frequent, and they excited popular interest. Courts, lawyers, and public speakers resorted to all the tricks of speech to win popular favor, and audiences demanded something startling, dramatic, and unusual. Quintilian tried to stay this tide, and taught that oratory should conceal itself. He met, however, with poor success in reforming the evil.

Quintilian's Pedagogy.—His pedagogical teachings, some of which we present, are of the greatest importance.

1. There should be no corporal punishment, as punishment administered to slaves is not suitable for children who are to be citizens.

2. Nurses must be irreproachable in life and language, so that children be not brought in contact with anything impure.

3. Amusements should be turned to account as a means of education.

4. Teachers should be men of ability and of spotless character.

5. Children should begin early with a foreign tongue, as their own language will come to them naturally in their intercourse with those about them.

6. Education should begin with the earliest childhood.

7. The forms and names of the letters should be learned simultaneously, playthings being utilized to assist in this.

8. Care should be taken that children do not acquire a distaste for learning.

9. In learning to read, advance very slowly.

10. Writing should begin with tracing, and the copies should consist of moral precepts.

11. The individuality of the child should be studied.

12. Public schools are preferable to other means of education, because they do not subject the child to greater moral danger, while they stimulate him by association, friendship, and example, to nobler endeavor.

13. Under the literatus, grammar, composition, music, geometry, astronomy, and literature are to be studied.

14. The climax of education should be rhetoric.

Other Roman Educators.—Among the other Roman educators may be mentioned Plutarch (50-138 A.D.) and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Plutarch in his "Parallel Lives" gives particular attention to morals. He offers valuable suggestions as to the training of children, laying great stress upon family life, an admonition particularly needed in Rome at that period. He also urges that women should be educated in order properly to train their children, being one of the first to consider this question.

Marcus Aurelius, called "the philosopher on the throne," in his "Meditations" gave expression to most lofty thoughts, showing keenest self-examination and obedience to conscience. His moral teachings are among the noblest of all the writers of antiquity.