Part 6 (1/2)
[+]Plato suggested in his ”Republic” (V. 451 f.) that women should receive the same educational opportunities as the men. This was a proposition for Utopia and never struck any answering chord.
Meantime her brother has been started upon a course of education which, both in what it contains and in what it omits, is one of the most interesting and significant features of Athenian life.
Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens.
51. Athenians Generally Literate.--Education is not compulsory by law in Athens, but the father who fails to give his son at least a modic.u.m of education falls under a public contempt, which involves no slight penalty. Practically all Athenians are at least literate.
In Aristophanes's famous comedy, ”The Knights,” a boorish ”sausage-seller” is introduced, who, for the purposes of the play, must be one of the very sc.u.m of society, and he is made to cry, ”Only consider now my education! I can but barely read, just in a kind of way.”[*] Evidently if illiterates are not very rare in Athens, the fellow should have been made out utterly ignorant. ”He can neither swim[+] nor say his letters,” is a common phrase for describing an absolute idiot. When a boy has reached the age of seven, the time for feminine rule is over; henceforth his floggings, and they will be many, are to come from firm male hands.
[*]Aristophanes, ”Knights”, II. 188-189.
[+]Swimming was an exceedingly common accomplishment among the Greeks, naturally enough, so much of their life being spent upon or near the sea.
52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education.--The true education is of course begun long before the age of seven. CHARACTER NOT BOOK-LEARNING, IS THE MAIN OBJECT OF ATHENIAN EDUCATION, i.e.
to make the boy self-contained, modest, alert, patriotic, a true friend, a dignified gentleman, able to appreciate and partic.i.p.ate in all that is true, harmonius and beautiful in life. To that end his body must be trained, not apart from, but along with his mind.
Plato makes his character Protagoras remark, ”As soon as a child understands what is said to him, the nurse, the mother, the pedagogue, and the father vie in their efforts to make him good, by showing him in all that he does that 'THIS is right,' and 'THAT is wrong'; 'this is pretty,' and 'that is ugly'; so that he may learn what to follow and what to shun. If he obeys willingly--why, excellent.
If not, then try by threats and blows to correct him, as men straighten a warped and crooked sapling.” Also after he is fairly in school ”the teacher is enjoined to pay more attention to his morals and conduct than to his progress in reading and music.”
53. The Schoolboy's Pedagogue.--It is a great day for an Athenian boy when he is given a pedagogue. This slave (perhaps purchased especially for the purpose) is not his teacher, but he ought to be more than ordinarily honest, kindly, and well informed. His prime business is to accompany the young master everywhere out-of-doors, especially to the school and to the gymnasium; to carry his books and writing tablets; to give informal help upon his lessons; to keep him out of every kind of mischief; to teach him social good manners; to answer the thousand questions a healthy boy is sure to ask; and finally, in emergencies, if the schoolmaster or his father is not at hand, to administer a needful whipping. A really capable pedagogue can mean everything to a boy; but it is asking too much that a purchased slave should be an ideal companion.[*] Probably many pedagogues are responsible for their charges' idleness or downright depravity. It is a dubious system at the best.
[*]No doubt frequently the pedagogue would be an old family servant of good morals, loyalty, and zeal. In that case the relation might be delightful.
The a.s.signing of the pedagogue is simultaneous with the beginning of school days; and the Athenians are not open to the charge of letting their children waste their time during possible study hours. As early as Solon's day (about 590 B.C.) a law had to be pa.s.sed forbidding schools to open BEFORE daybreak, or to be kept open after dusk. This was in the interest not of good eyesight, but of good morals. Evidently schools had been keeping even longer than through the daylight. In any case, at gray dawn every yawning schoolboy is off, urged on by his pedagogue, and his tasks will continue with very little interruption through the entire day.
It is therefore with reason that the Athenian lads rejoice in the very numerous religious holidays.
54. An Athenian School.--Leaving the worthy citizen's home, where we have lingered long chatting on many of the topics the house and its denizens suggest, we will turn again to the streets to seek the school where one of the young sons of the family has been duly conducted (possibly, one may say, driven) by his pedagogue. We have not far to go. Athenian schools have to be numerous, because they are small. To teach children of the poorer cla.s.ses it is enough to have a modest room and a few stools; an unrented shop will answer. But we will go to a more pretentious establishment.
There is an anteroom by the entrance way where the pedagogues can sit and doze or exchange gossip while their respective charges are kept busy in the larger room within. The latter place, however, is not particularly commodious. On the bare wall hang book-rolls, lyres, drinking vessels, baskets for books, and perhaps some simple geometric instruments. The pupils sit on rude, low benches, each lad with his boxwood tablet covered with wax[*] upon his lap, and presumably busy, scratching letters with his stylus. The master sits on a high chair, surveying the scene. He cultivates a grim and awful aspect, for he is under no delusion that ”his pupils love him.” ”He sits aloft,” we are told, ”like a juryman, with an expression of implacable wrath, before which the pupil must tremble and cringe.”[+]
[*]This wax tablet was practically a slate. The letters written could be erased with the blunt upper end of the metallic stylus, and the whole surface of the tablet could be made smooth again by a judicious heating.
[+]The quotation is from the late writer Libanius, but it is perfectly true for cla.s.sic Athens.
Athenian schoolboys have at least their full share of idleness, as well as of animal spirits. There is soon a loud whisper from one corner. Instantly the ruling tyrant rises. ”Antiphon! I have heard you. Come forward!” If Antiphon is wise, he will advance promptly and submit as cheerfully as possible to a sound caning; if folly possesses him, he will hesitate. At a nod from the master two older boys, who serve as monitors, will seize him with grim chuckles. He will then be fortunate if he escapes being tied to a post and flogged until his back is one ma.s.s of welts, and his very life seems in danger. It will be useless for him to complain to his parents. A good schoolmaster is supposed to flog frequently to earn his pay; if he is sparing with the rod or lash, he is probably lacking in energy. Boys will be boys, and there is only one remedy for juvenile shortcomings.
This diversion, of course, with its attendant howling, interrupts the course of the school, but presently matters again become normal.
The scholars are so few that probably there is only one teacher, and instruction is decidedly ”individual,” although poetry and singing are very likely taught ”in concert.”
55. The School Curriculum.--As to the subjects studied, the Athenian curriculum is well fixed and limited: letters, music, and gymnastics. Every lad must have a certain amount of all of these.
They gymnastics will be taught later in the day by a special teacher at a ”wrestling school.” The ”music” may also be taught separately. The main effort with a young boy is surely to teach him to read and write. And here must be recalled the relative infrequency of complete books in cla.s.sic Athens.[*] To read public placards, inscriptions of laws, occasional epistles, commercial doc.u.ments, etc., is probably, for many Athenians, reading enough.
The great poets he will learn by ear rather than by eye; and he may go through a long and respected life and never be compelled to read a really sizable volume from end to end. So the teaching of reading is along very simple lines. It is perhaps simultaneous with the learning of writing. The twenty-four letters are learned by sheer power of memory; then the master sets lines upon the tablets to be copied. As soon as possible the boy is put to learning and writing down pa.s.sages from the great poets. Progress in mere literacy is very rapid. There is no waste of time on history, geography, or physical science; and between the concentration on a singly main subject and the impetus given by the master's rod the Athenian schoolboy soon becomes adept with his letters. Possibly a little arithmetic is taught him, but only a little. In later life, if he does not become a trader or banker, he will not be ashamed to reckon simple sums upon his fingers or by means of pebbles; although if his father is ambitious to have him become a philosopher, he may have him taught something of geometry.
Once more we see the total absence of ”vocational studies” in this Athenian education. The whole effort is to develop a fair, n.o.ble, free, and lofty character, not to earn a living. To set a boy to study with an eye to learning some profitable trade is counted illiberal to the last degree. It is for this reason that practical arithmetic is discouraged, yet a little knowledge of the art of outline drawing is allowed; for though no gentleman intends to train his son to be a great artist, the study will enable him to appreciate good sculpture and painting. Above all the schoolmaster, who, despite his brutal austerity, ought to be a clear-sighted and inspiring teacher, must lose no opportunity to instill moral lessons, and develop the best powers of his charges. Theoginis, the old poet of Megara, states the case well:--