The Education of Children in Antiquity (2)

The teaching staff fell into three categories:

(1) the 'grammatistai', who taught how to speak correctly in words and grammar; (2) the 'kitharistai', who taught music; (3) and the 'paidotribai', who taught physical training.

Besides these, the masters gave classes in arithmetic, literature and ethics (morals).

The kitharistai taught musical instruments such as the 'lyre' (almost a small harp) or the 'whistle', which was the flute.

Physical training was compulsory, and games such as 'wrestling' (güreş) took place in the palaestra (the sports halls of today). This basic education for boys ended at 14 to 16 years of age.

The richer families allowed their sons to go on to secondary school, where they learned rhetoric, the science of speaking well, of finding the right word, of knowing how to converse. These families could pay the sophist philosophers, who were more expensive than the others who gave classes and private lessons.

At the end of their studies, at the age of 18, the young men had to do their military service, which was compulsory.

In the time of Plato and Aristotle these young men went either to Plato's 'Academy' or to Aristotle's 'Lyceum' (lise).

In Mesopotamia the mentality was different. First of all, sons were the guarantee of their parents' old age. The father had absolute authority over his children. He could sell his children as slaves, or give them to another family as orphans. Even so, having a son was very important; one had to praise the gods and make offerings so that they would be born and grow up in health, and the custom was to give them the names of the grandfathers or grandmothers (as was our own custom until a few years ago).

If there was no birth, the man could take a second wife. But all this was regulated by law. Giving a son an education belonged only to the rich families. Among the Sumerians the schools were called 'the Tablet House'. The school had to be next to the temple. Pupils had only 3 days of rest a month, plus 3 more days of rest for the festivals.

The schools taught not only the professions of the rich but also mathematics, grammar, geography, botany and zoology. But the most important thing was knowing how to write on the tablets. To write on tablets they had to learn it from early childhood, when they were small.

It seems that not much changed in the technique of teaching and learning over 4,000 years. Only that in our day, with computers, I believe everything will take a new road at the speed of lightning.