Ancient to Roman Education

Early Education
Education has always been a social process by means of which a community, society or
nation has sought to transmit to the emergent question those traditional aspects of its
culture which considered fundamental and vital for its own stability and survival.
Education among people was directed to ensuring the survival of the group, clan, or tribe
through training of the young in skills and arts necessary to maintain life.
Characteristics of Primitive Culture
Some of the characteristics of primitive culture are:
1. Relatively simple
Life was very simple. Primitive man's activities were to feed, clothe, shelter and protect
himself and those dependent on him. Their means of livelihood were hunting and
gathering of wild fruits and vegetables. They lived in crude huts.
2. Relatively narrow social and cultural contacts
His tribe was small and occupied a small area, but the life of the tribe bounded the world
of his thinking and of his sympathies.
3. Extraordinarily conservative and prone to superstitions
Because of their limited cultural contacts, primitive people were extraordinarily
conservative and prone to superstition. They clung with great tenacity to old ideas and
ways of behavior. Belief in magic and the occult was universal among them. Their world
was peopled with unseen beings, ghosts, spirits and deities. Illness, famine, storms,
accidents and failure were attributed to actions of ill-disposed spirits. The safety of the
group depended, therefore, on witch doctors and the faithfulness with which religious
duties and ceremonies were performed.
4. Organization was tribal not political
The organization of primitive life was tribal, not political, so that one function of
education was to enable one to live with his relatives.
Most primitive cultures were composed of one of three different types of societal
structure: Band, Clan, or Tribe.
Band
A band society is the simplest form of human society. It generally consisted of a small
kinship group, often nor much larger than an extended family. Bands tend to have very
informal leadership; the older members of the band generally were looked to for guidance
and advice, but there are no written laws and law enforcement like that seen in more

complex societies. They may not be permanent. In fact, a band can cease to exist if only a
small group walks out. Band customs exist and are adhered to; they are almost always
transmitted orally. Formal social institutions are few or non-existent.
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by perceived
descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan
members nonetheless recognized a founding member or "apical ancestor." As kinshipbased bonds could be merely symbolic in nature some clans shared a "stipulated"
common ancestor, which is a symbol of the clan's unity. When this ancestor is not human,
this is referred to a totem. Generally speaking, kinship differs from biological relation, as
it also involves Adoption, Marriage, and fictive genealogical ties.
Tribe
A tribe consists of a group of interlinked families or communities sharing a common
culture and dialect. Often times a tribe is composed of an ethnic group, whose members
identify with each other, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or
lineage, and are also usually united by common cultural, behavioral, linguistic, or
religious practices. For various reasons, the term "tribe" fell into disfavor in the latter part
of the twentieth century. Thus, it was replaced with the designation "ethnic group," which
defines a group of people of common ancestry and language, shared cultural history, and
an identifiable territory.
5. Absence from primitive cultures of reading and writing
Lastly, the most significant feature was the absence from primitive cultures of reading
and writing. They possessed arts and information but they lacked the methods by which
these were collected and made available for use. They had stories, songs, implements and
institutions but their educational activities were directed to the transmission of learning
not to be learners' development, the increase of knowledge, or the discovery of new
skills. Information was transmitted through word of mouth, songs, gestures, ceremonial
rites and the like.
Aims of primitive education
Security
The basic aim of primitive education was security since the fundamental problem then
was to stay alive, to protect oneself and his family from the destructive forces of nature,
both human and divine. Fear, therefore, was the greatest stimulus for action, and also the
earliest motive for education. Whether conscious of it or not the primitive man's
educational aim was to prepare the young to secure himself and his family and to appease
the gods or spirits that controlled his existence. His respect for trees, rocks, the sun, etc.

gave rise to the earliest religion, ANIMISM.

Conformity
The second aim of primitive education was conformity, since this was basic for social
security. Conformity brought together families, clans and tribes so that they could
conquer common dangers.
Primitive people have been able to survive by subordinating the interests of the individual
to the interests of the group. Primitive education aimed at securing the continued
existence of the group by restricting the activities of its members, unlike in complex
democratic cultures where education seeks to achieve social security by increasing the
intelligence, skill and freedom of all its members.
Preservation of traditions
In ages past, education was simply enculturation, that is, the imposing of group
characteristics upon children. For a member to deviate from the customs and beliefs of
his tribe was unpardonable. The ways they were doing things were the best and they want
to preserve it and be transmitted to the incoming generation.
Types of education
Vocational like hunting, constructing a hut.
Religious (or animism) is learning how to participate in ritualistic practices to please or
appease the unseen spirits.
Education in earliest civilization
The education provided among the people of ancient Asia was virtually a system of social
stratification and a division of classes corresponding to the division of labor with the
hierarchy, from the ruling (priestly, military, or noble) classes down to the workers.
The stratification was most clearly marked in the caste system of the Hindus. Education
was limited to the acquisition of group traditions by oral and memorization methods, and
to the learning of the ordinary skills of life and of trades by imitation and apprenticeship.
Trades were normally handed on from father to son.
Method of learning
Those destined to enter priesthood, written records were learned by rote and
memorization, a practice which still survives.

The elements of education in the laws, traditions and customs were imparted by the
family, later by the class teachers.
Writing was learned by imitating the teachers copy either with stick or sand or with
stylus on palm leaves, later with pen and ink on the thin bark of trees.
Vocational training was imparted by apprenticeship.
The traditional method of learning by repeating lesson orally after the teacher repeating
aloud the content of the books, still survives in Oriental countries, even where modern
schools were established.
Agencies of education
Home is always the center of learning especially for the young.
Environment, for instance, if one happened to step on a thorn and got hurt, he now
became careful not to step on thorn. Experience in the environment is the teacher.
Method of instruction
All instruction was done informally, merely enculturation of characteristics, skills,
knowledge and attitudes upon children.
Observation and imitation from parents was done.
Simple telling and demonstration, this is lecture - demonstration nowadays
Participation, children participated in the work of their parents and they learned.
Financing and outstanding contribution to education
There was no financing involved since there was no teacher to pay, no learning materials
to buy, and no school to construct because education was strictly informal.
The primitive man started the rudiments of education from which evolved the modern
educational systems of today.
Early Roman Education
Roman boys and girls began their formal education around the age of 6 or 7 at the ludus
(primary school). (Prior to this age, they were taught in the home by their mother or by
slaves.) The children were accompanied to school by a slave known as a paedagogus,
who also acted as a tutor and supervised their homework. Schools might be located either
in a building, or out-of-doors. Lessons in primary school were devoted mostly to reading
and writing; the children practiced by writing in sand or on wax-coated wooden tablets.
They began by learning the alphabet, then forming syllables, then words and sentences,
and eventually reading stories. Discipline was very strict and the cane was used

frequently; the poet Horace later recalled that his teacher, Orbilius, was very fond of the
whip. Quintilian, an educator in the first century AD, disapproved of corporal
punishment, which suggests that it was still rampant in his day.
At about age 12, the pupils progressed to a grammar school, where they came under the
charge of a grammaticus or grammar teacher. Here they studied literature in considerable
detail; particular stress was laid on model authors such as Cicero, Vergil and Livy.
Teachers were notoriously underpaid and had to solicit funds from the children's parents.
This presupposes that the poor could not afford much education for their children.
Eventually, however, public salaries for teachers were introduced.
Girls seldom progressed beyond this point, but remained at home to be trained in the
domestic arts in preparation for marriage; most of them married while in their teens. Boys
who completed grammar school might progress, around the age of 16, to the school of a
rhetor or teacher of rhetoric. Here they would learn to give speeches and to participate in
debates. This sort of training was clearly designed for potential politicians and lawyers,
so the student body was presumably upper-class; boys from poorer families would
already be in the work force. Debating exercises involved arguing both sides of a madeup situation; the situations were often quite implausible, involving people being
kidnapped by pirates, or parents poisoning their children. Several Roman authors ridicule
these school exercises as unrealistic and irrelevant to the sorts of cases a lawyer might
actually encounter. As Seneca complains, "we learn for school, not for life." Part of the
rhetorical training involved making-up speeches and letters which might have been
spoken by an historical character in a given situation. When we read in an historian like
Livy a speech attributed to Romulus or Hannibal, we have to remember that such
speeches are sheer fabrication by the historian, based on his school training, to set the
mood and show what these characters might have said.
Aims of education
The aim of Roman education was utilitarian, not theory but application, not learning but
practice. Early Roman education emphasized a practical training for military life and
citizenship, acquired through memorization of the laws of the twelve tables and the
historical traditions of Rome.
It was not until the Romans succumbed to the cultural influence of the Greeks that they
began to provide formal schooling.
Utilitarian for practical purposes, to produce men who would be active and efficient in
daily life;
Moral to produce citizen who knew how to exercise their rights, fulfill their duties, and
obligations and acquire virtues.
Military to train men to be good soldiers and conquerors in war
Civic and political to train men to be participative and wise in politics.
Religious to train men to have reverence for the gods.

Types of education
Physical and military training for the training of good soldiers
Civic training to make men know their rights and obligations to the state
Moral training for the development of moral virtues
Religious training children were trained in religious ceremonies and usages
Vocational training- for livelihood
Content to be studied
Ballads and songs glorifying traits esteemed by the Romans
The Laws of The Twelve Tables define private and public relationships and human and
property rights.
Religious ceremonies and usages among the gods were: Jupiter, the Roman guardian;
Juno, Jupiters wife, the symbol of Roman womanhood; Janus, the twin-faced, god of
beginnings and ends of activities; Saturn, god of agriculture; Minerva, goddess of
husbandmen; Mars, god of war; Vulcan, god of forge and industry; Venus, goddess of
love; Lares, spirit of ancestor; Penates, household spirit; and Genius, spirit of the father
of the home.
Physical and military exercises
Domestic chores taught by mothers to their daughter
Vocations crafts and skills learned by males
Agencies of education
Home
Shop and farm boys went with their fathers to shops and farms to learn the trades of
their fathers.
Military camp place where the boys learned the art of warfare like using the battle ax,
lance and chariot.
Forum place where the boys learned the science of politics and government
Private schools the pupil had to pay for some learning such as reading, writing and
counting.
Organization of grade level
Early learning for young children was in the home. Later the boys went with their fathers
to the shops or farms. The boys also went to the forum to learn about public affairs. At

16, the boy became a citizen taking on toga virilis of manhood.

He then entered military camp.
Method of instruction
The rhetorical curriculum also included Greek, the language of culture and philosophy.
Educated men were expected to be able to speak Greek, and Greek words are often used
by Roman writers to express concepts for which there was no easy Latin equivalent, just
as we occasionally use French phrases today. In the western half of the Empire, Greek
was a second language; in the east, which had been conquered long before by
Alexander the Great, Greek was far more prominent than Latin. Native languages, the
speech of the pre-Roman inhabitants of the various provinces, were not taught in schools,
though they were still spoken in the street, even in the Late Empire.
Direct imitation the boys imitated their fathers and girls their mothers.
Memorization memorized the Laws of the Twelve Tables, ballads and religious songs.
Discipline there was corporal punishment and even death.
Later Roman Education
Learners did not pay any fees. But when they entered the private schools they had to pay.
Those who were really ambitious could go to university, where they could specialize in
philosophy, medicine or oratory. Already in the Late Republic, aristocratic young Romans
- Cicero's son, for example - went to Athens to complete their education at the philosophy
schools, and here the world's first university was established in the second century AD.
New universities sprang up at Rome, Alexandria, Carthage, and elsewhere. In the Late
Empire the universities became havens of paganism; the university of Athens was finally
shut down in the sixth century.
Aims of education
Oratorical for capability improvement especially in public speaking, perfection in
public speaking and debate.
Civic to train the students for public service.
Types of education
Speech training
Civic training
Literacy training
Vocational education
Content to be studied
In elementary includes rudiments of reading, writing, calculation and arithmetic.
In secondary school, grammar was the chief study with literature, prose, poetry and
language. Geography, history, mythology and natural science were also studied.

In higher school, rhetoric was the chief study with declamation, extemporaneous
speaking, and debate.
In the university, applied science and professions such as law, medicine, architecture and
mechanics were in the curriculum.
Agencies of education
School of litterator ( teacher of letters)- for elementary level, attended by both boys and
girls.
School of grammaticus ( teacher of grammar)- in secondary level attended by boys only.
School of the rhetor ( teacher of rhetoric)- in the higher level.
Athenaeum- in the university level developed as the center of learning around the library.
Organization of grade level
At age 7- 10, boys and girls entered the litterator.
At age 10- 16, boys entered secondary level
At 16 or older, boys entered the school of the rhetor for two to three years.
Those who hurdled the school of the rhetor went to the Athenaeum for a professional
course.
Method of instruction
Memorization used in elementary level. Class sessions were from sunrise to sunset but
no class was held during summer and holidays were many. Writing and reading were
taught from dictation.
Drill and writing exercises in secondary level. Intensive drill on grammatical elements
like parts of speech, syntax and pronunciation. Practice in writing paragraphs, themes,
compositions and poetic expressions.
Public speaking practices in third level. Public speaking like declamations, eulogies,
funeral orations, exhortations and extemporaneous speaking.
Financing
Only the children of well-to-do families could attend school scholarship for the poor was
introduced. Emperor Trajan provided scholarships for poor students.
Classes were conducted in the homes of some pupils or in some vacant public buildings.
Antonius Pius exempted teachers from paying taxes and military service. Marcus
Aurelius ordered the establishment of a salary scale for teachers. Hadrian started paying
pensions to retired teachers. Julian establish the licensure examination for teachers.
Outstanding contribution to education
Rich Romans might have private libraries. Several of the generals who conquered the
eastern provinces in the last two centuries BC brought back books confiscated from the

libraries of oriental monarchs. While in Egypt, Julius Caesar may have seen the Library
of Alexandria, which held 700,000 volumes. Before his death, Caesar commissioned the
eminent scholar Varro to gather books for a public library at Rome. The first public
library was finally opened in 39 BC on the Palatine Hill. Subsequently Augustus built
two larger libraries, housing both Greek and Latin works. One of these was destroyed by
fire in the late 1st c. AD, but the other, on the Palatine, survived until the 4th c AD. The
emperor Trajan later opened a library in his new forum, with Greek and Latin books in
two buildings separated by Trajan's Column, a pictorial history of the Dacian wars. Since
Roman books were scrolls and could not stand upright, they were stored in cupboards
rather than on bookshelves.
By the Late Empire, there were nearly 30 public libraries at Rome, and libraries in other
cities as well. The emperor Hadrian, for instance, built a famous library at Athens, part of
which (minus the books of course) is still standing.
Methods of organization, management and administration
Organized body of civil law which became the basis of the legal systems I many
countries including the Philippines
Among the Roman educational writers, Cicero, Tacitus, and Quintilian stood out.
Two of the most influential teachers and thinkers in Roman education
were Cicero and Quintilian.
Ciceros writing provided the ideal for the education of the Middle Ages.
His educational ideas were put in his The Orator.
Quintilian, in his Institutes of Oratory, pictured the orator not only as a well rounded man
of affairs but as a man of integrity in character.
Quintilian, stressed memory and used memorizing as main basis for motivation. He made
use of plays and games for relaxation and to stimulate interest in consideration with
individual differences.
He suggested competition and awards as bases for motivation rather than corporal
punishment.
Some of the Roman traits
Romans were not truly interested in the cultural aspects of life, although some of finer
aspects of Hellenic culture were taken as a means of shows.
Wealth became the objective of most citizens and vulgar displays became the essence of
wealth. Luxury, corruption, extravagance, and vice became common place.
The Roman lacked drive for clean competition; they did not like nakedness of
performance, and they did not see the value of play as an enjoyable pastime.
They preferred professionalism than amateurism. The rewards of some individuals who

engaged in chariot races and gladiatorial combats were enormous.