ancient Greek schools. Education in ancient greece
1. Education. Unlike the states of the ancient East, there were a lot of literate people in Greece. The Greeks in ancient times were the most educated people in the world. In the East, literacy and education were required mainly only by officials, the bulk of the people were illiterate. But how could an illiterate and uneducated person be a worthy citizen of his policy? Imagine a popular assembly in Athens, at which the question is put to a vote, which of the citizens is suspected of striving to violate Athenian laws and seize all power into their own hands? Each of the citizens must write the name of such a person on a shard from a vessel and throw it into a special urn. Secret voting - after counting the potsherds, the person whose name will be mentioned more than others is expelled from the city for 10 years. Can an illiterate person vote? But it is decided the most important question about the fate of the state! And who will listen at a people's meeting to a person who cannot connect two words and clearly express his thought in words, even if he offers something good and useful for citizens?
Children in Greece started their studies at the age of 6-7. Boys studied in schools, girls were taught at home - in the family. The purpose of schooling was to educate a worthy citizen. Such a person, according to the Greeks, should be comprehensively developed - he should be educated, physically developed, should appreciate art and engage in it himself.
IN primary school boys were taught to read, write, count. By heart they memorized poems of poets, which glorified love for the motherland and freedom. The students were taught to sing and play musical instruments. A lot of time was devoted to sports, in which they were engaged in wrestling, running, jumping, throwing a discus, spears., Swimming. Those who did not know how to swim were considered by the Greeks to be an uneducated person.
Children whose parents had enough money paid for their education in secondary schools. There, the main attention was paid to eloquence - the ability to beautifully and correctly pronounce speeches. Students were taught the ability to argue, geometry, astronomy, they studied Greek literature. Such education and upbringing led to the fact that a citizen of the Greek polis was an educated person, physically developed and a skilled warrior, could clearly and convincingly express his thoughts (which was especially important at public meetings). He was well versed in literature and art.
The girls were taught at home. They were taught mainly housekeeping: weaving, spinning, sewing, cooking, etc. But they also learned to read and write, sing and dance.
Education in Sparta had its own characteristics. Boys and youths were primarily trained as warriors, and most of the time was devoted to physical exercise. They were also taught to read and write, but they were not taught eloquence and the sciences. Spartiate children learned to sing, but only military marches. But Spartan girls did not sit locked up at home sewing or spinning, but, like boys, they went in for sports a lot.
Education in Greece was available only to free people. Slaves were not allowed to education, they were forbidden to engage even in physical exercises.
2. Ancient Greek science. In the states of the ancient East, the keepers of scientific knowledge were mainly priests, as well as some officials. This helped them to dominate the huge mass of the illiterate people, who worked from dawn to dusk. The Greeks were different. Availability a large number slaves, the financial fortunes of many citizens, the absence of compulsion to do hard work, left a lot of time for education and science. a learned man in Greece could become any of the most educated and cash citizens, although there were also people who preferred not even to have their own home and good food, but to engage in science.
Many modern sciences come from Greece. This is indicated even by their names, taken from the ancient Greek language: history (a story about past events), philosophy (love of wisdom), geography (description of the earth), geometry (surveying), biology (the doctrine of life), physics (nature), mathematics (knowledge, science), etc. The Greeks borrowed many scientific knowledge from the peoples of the ancient East, and then generalized and developed them.
The “Father of History” is called the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century. BC. He wrote the first historical work that has come down to us - a book about the history of the Greco-Persian wars.
And the “father of medicine” can be considered the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. He taught how to identify diseases and how to treat them. Every doctor today, before receiving a diploma giving him the right to treat people, pronounces the famous “Hippocratic oath”, composed by him about 2,400 years ago. And every doctor repeats the words of the great Greek: “I will use the treatment to help the sick to the best of my ability and ability, never harming them ... And whatever I see or hear, doing my craft, I never I will divulge it."
The Greeks were skilled sailors. Their ships reached every corner of the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Greek travelers also sailed into the Atlantic Ocean, they visited the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. Navigators and merchants needed maps of lands and seas, they had to accurately navigate, correctly determine the path, know the countries and lands where they were going. Therefore, in Greece much attention was paid to the development of the science of geography. Of course, the Greeks knew nothing about America, Australia, Antarctica. According to their ideas, people could only live in areas with a temperate climate; south of Ethiopia, it is impossible to live because of the intense heat, and they considered the north of Europe and Asia uninhabitable because of the cold. But already some ancient Greek scientists believed that the Earth has the shape of a ball and even accurately calculated the length of its circumference.
The Greeks considered philosophy to be the pinnacle of all sciences. This science generalized all the knowledge and achievements of other sciences. The philosophers of ancient Greece sought to understand how the world works, how it arose, what place a person occupies in the world, according to what rules a person should live in society with other people. some philosophers believed that everything in the world came from water, others - that from air. The scientist Democritus (460-371 BC) argued that living and non-living things on Earth consist of the smallest particles - atoms, which are combined into various combinations and then stones, plants, water, animals, people are formed. When the first people appeared, Democritus taught, they were forced to unite in order to protect themselves from wild animals. The philosopher considered democracy to be the best social system for people, when people are equal in rights and free.
A contemporary of Democritus, the Athenian philosopher Socrates said that the bad deeds of people come from ignorance, only knowledge allows a person to do the right thing. A person will not do something that can harm him if he knows about it. So Socrates called people: "Know thyself."
>>History: How children were taught in Ancient Greece
42. How children were taught in Ancient Greece
1. School.
Until the age of seven, the mother took care of the children. In rich families, children had a lot of toys: rattles, dolls, whistles, spinning tops. Children played with puppies, pigeons, turtles. The boys were then sent to school. A slave teacher was often assigned to them. He looked after the child, taught him how to behave, took him to school. Schools had to be paid for. Although in Athens this fee was small, the sons of the poor did not go to school for long. After all, they started working early. The children of rich parents studied longer, so they became more educated people.
The school primarily taught reading, writing and arithmetic. IN learning helped arithmetic visual aids: pebbles, a special board on which units, tens, hundreds are marked. At first they wrote on waxed wooden boards with a style - a special metal or bone stick. They wrote with the sharp end of the style, and with the blunt end they erased and smoothed the wax. Later, they began to write on papyrus with ink using a reed stick.
The teacher punished naughty and lazy people. For this he had rods and a stick. A papyrus has been preserved with the inscription: "Be diligent, boy, so that you are not beaten." Below this entry is repeated four times by the student. They say that one rich man gave his lazy son 24 small slaves. Their names began with all letters of the alphabet. So the father wanted to help his son learn to read and write.
There were no textbooks then. They were replaced by poems of poets. In the first place were, of course, poems Homer"Iliad" and "Odyssey". They contained a lot of information on geography and history, but most importantly, they glorified valor, heroism, and perseverance in the fight against difficulties. The student should know about the heroes and imitate them.
Music was the most important subject in schools. Each boy learned to play the flute and cithara, to sing. Music accompanied the Greeks throughout their lives. Athletes trained to the music, hoplites went into battle. Music sounded at holidays and in theater.
At the same time, the boys were diligently engaged in gymnastics. It was believed that healthy man deal with difficulties more easily. Gymnastics will give the body harmony, flexibility, help to become brave. These qualities, together with modesty and reasonableness, should have helped to make a good citizen out of a student.
They went in for sports in the palestra (from the ancient Greek word "pale" - wrestling). In the palestra they were engaged in running, jumping, discus and spear throwing, and wrestling.
2. Gymnasiums.
By the age of 16, young men finished school. But the children of wealthy parents could continue their education for another two years. They still went in for sports, but already in the gymnasium. There were three gymnasiums in Athens. The most famous in Athens are the Lyceum (hence the word "lyceum") and the Academy.
There were no institutes or universities in Greece, but it was possible to take lessons from philosophers. Their lessons were expensive.
3. Greek philosophy.
Philosophy originated at the end of the 7th century BC. e. in Ionia. The Greeks called philosophers people who sought to understand and explain how the world works - nature, man, human society. They pondered, asked themselves questions, observed. Therefore, the first philosophers were also the first scientists - they were engaged in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, geography and other sciences.
Such a scientist-philosopher was Pythagoras, who lived in Magna Graecia (in Southern Italy) in the 6th century BC. e.
At the center of the philosophical views of Pythagoras was mathematics, the most great importance he gave numbers. He thought that everything was based on quantity, not quality, he studied the properties of numbers. The so-called Pythagorean theorem is widely known. Pythagoras enjoyed great respect and fame not only in Magna Graecia. He had many students.
Socrates was very famous. Socrates' focus was on man. He believed that philosophy should help a person become better. Socrates was especially interested in what truth, good and evil are. Socrates devoted all his time to reflection and conversation. Socrates' favorite way of conducting conversations is by asking questions. Thus he encouraged his interlocutors to seek the truth. But at the same time, as Socrates said, he studied himself.
Opponents of Socrates accused him of godlessness, and the court of his native Athens sentenced him to death. Socrates was imprisoned. The disciples, having bribed the guards, offered him to flee, but Socrates refused, saying that he must obey the laws. He died by drinking poison. The Greeks themselves considered Socrates a sage. And for subsequent eras, Socrates became the embodiment of the ideal of the sage.
An outstanding Greek thinker was Plato, a student of Socrates, with whom he spent 20 years. Plato thought a lot about what the state should be like. He created a draft of an ideal policy and described in detail its structure. Plato founded his school in the gymnasium of the Academy. It was the first permanent philosophical school in Athens. It has existed for almost a thousand years.
The second permanent philosophical school in Athens was created by Aristotle, a student of Plato, in the gymnasium Lyceum. Aristotle is one of the greatest philosophers and scientists of all times and peoples. It is difficult, probably, to find a field of knowledge in which he would not be engaged. Aristotle wrote many works about plants, animals, man, etc. He was very interested in the policy. Together with numerous students, Aristotle described the devices of more than 150 policies and, on their basis, wrote a study on the state and its various forms.
4. Ephebia.
From the age of 18, Athenian youths underwent compulsory military training. During such training, they were called ephebes. They were taught to walk in formation, wield weapons, shoot from a bow, throw darts and handle a catapult (a device for throwing arrows, spears and stones).
A year later, in a solemn atmosphere in the theater, the ephebes were presented with a shield and a sword as real warriors. They spent the second year of training on the borders of the policy, on duty at guard posts. After two years, the young men became full citizens.
5. Raising girls.
Girls did not go to school and were brought up at home. They were taught to read and write, under the supervision of their mother they were engaged in music, needlework, weaving, and home economics. The girls stayed at home until they were given in marriage. It happened at about 15-16 years old. With rich parents, girls lived more freely and more cheerfully. In poor houses there was no time for music and dancing. Like boys, girls started working early to help their parents.
IN AND. Ukolova, L.P. Marinovich, History, Grade 5
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Education and the first educational institutions in Ancient Greece
In Greece, already in a very early times great attention devoted to the education of children. The Greeks sought to educate an intellectual and healthy person, well developed physically, to combine the beauty of the body and moral virtues. By the 5th c. BC. there were no illiterate people among the free Athenians. Education has moved from home to school.
So, in ancient Greece there were several types educational institutions: school, palestra, gymnasium. ancient greece gymnasium theater
1. School - education in Greece was paid. When an Athenian boy, the son of a wealthy citizen, turned seven years old, he was sent to school. Until this age, he spent time at home, in the women's quarters, playing with his brothers and sisters, listening to the songs of slaves who worked on yarn, weaving, embroidery, cooking, or the tales of a nurse and mother. Not a single male stranger entered the women's quarters. Occasionally, the father took his son to visit or allowed him to be present in the men's hall when the guests gathered in his house.
At the age of seven, schooling began. Farewell, female half of the house and games with sisters! Girls were not sent to school. After all, Athenian women did not participate either in elections, or in the national assembly, or in the courts. All that was required of them was to be modest, submissive wives and housewives. The less often they appeared in public, the more their father and husband were proud of them. And for such a life it was quite enough to teach them at home to weave wool, bake bread and look after the slaves.
When a boy goes to school, they are followed by slaves who are obliged to accompany the master's sons to school. They carry school supplies behind the boys: wooden, waxed tablets for writing, sticks - the styles with which they wrote, and for older boys - and the lyre on which they learned to play.
Schools were private, parents paid teachers to teach their children. The Athenians, like all slave owners, despised those who worked for pay, so teachers were not highly respected in society. When there was no news about a certain person for a long time, acquaintances would say: it is true that he either died or became a teacher. By this they meant to say that the missing person leads a too miserable life to tell his friends about himself. This did not prevent teachers, as well as teachers and fathers, from generously endowing disobedient and inattentive students with stick blows, so that the student's back became "more colorful than the skin of a snake." The sons of free Greeks studied at schools from the age of 7. Girls were taught at home by their mothers, the main occupation for them was housekeeping. At school, the boy, first of all, was taught to read and write. Having mastered the letter, the students began to read Homer. Homer's poems were considered very useful for children. They gave a lot of information on housekeeping, and every Athenian had to learn how to manage his house; they taught obedience, and every citizen had to know how to obey. At school, boys were taught to play the cithara, the lyre and the flute, as well as singing. Every Athenian had to be able to play and sing.
2. Palestra (“pale” - wrestling) - from the age of 12 - 13, the boys also began to attend gymnastic schools, and from the age of 14, gymnastics almost completely replaced the music school in their lives. The study of gymnastics was considered no less important matter than acquaintance with music and literature. After all, a citizen must also be a warrior, and who needs such warriors, said the Athenians, who tremble in the cold, weaken from the heat, suffocate from the dust, weak and clumsy, who do not know how to answer a blow with a blow, swim across a river or catch up with a fleeing enemy.
Having studied the first half of the day at the music school, the boys went to the palestra - that was the name of the gymnastic schools. Shedding clothes and rubbing skin olive oil in order to make it elastic and smooth, they went out into an open space strewn with sand, where classes took place. The gymnastics teacher, armed with a cane, with which he acted no less diligently than a music school teacher, was already waiting for his students. Exercises began: running, wrestling, jumping, discus and javelin throwing. Preparing for competitions in games and for war, young men strove to become strong, dexterous and fast.
3. Gymnasiums - originally intended for physical exercises, but later turned into a kind of centers of communication and places for musical and physical exercises of young people. Noble, wealthy Athenian youths aged 16-18 entered the gymnasium after the palestra. Continuing to do gymnastics at the gymnasium, they also studied politics, philosophy, and literature under the guidance of philosophers. The most famous gymnasiums were the Academy, where Plato talked with his students, and the Lyceum, founded by Aristotle.
IN various cities Greece training was different. In Sparta, where upbringing was a matter exclusively for the state, study and education were built with the aim of raising, first of all, a warrior and the mother of a warrior. For 13 years - from 7 to 20 years old - the boys were in state camps, constantly exercising physically. Girls also paid a lot of attention to sports, competed with boys in competitions. Less than, for example, in Athens, the little Spartans were engaged in music and literature, were more hardened in body. Rigidity and severity spartan methods upbringing made them a household name, and if endurance, firmness and conciseness have earned the praise and approval of descendants over the centuries, then cruelty and excessive enthusiasm for military training to the detriment of mental and artistic development already censured the contemporaries of the Spartans, the inhabitants of other city-states, where the ideal of "kalokagatiya" reigned - beauty and goodness, merged together.
And now let's go to the theater of Dionysus!
“With a cheerful crowd of wreathed maenads and satyrs, Dionysus walks around the world, from country to country. He walks in front in a wreath of grapes, in his hands is a thyrsus adorned with ivy. To the sound of flutes, a noisy procession moves merrily in the mountains, among shady forests, along green lawns ...
Dionysus (Bacchus) - in ancient Greek mythology the youngest of the Olympians, the god of winemaking, the productive forces of nature, inspiration and religious ecstasy. The Theater of Dionysus under the Acropolis is the oldest theater in Greece. It was here that the first plays of the ancient classics were staged for the first time.
At the origins of the Greek theater lay holidays in honor of the god Dionysus.
In autumn, after harvesting the grapes, the Greeks dressed in goat skins and masks, depicting forest gods - satyrs. Their processions, bacchanalia, were accompanied by wild dances and dithyrambs - songs glorifying Dionysus.
In the 6th c. BC e. on these holidays the script was introduced. So there were 1st performances. Soon the holidays were moved to special places - theaters, and after a while, playwrights appeared - people who wrote plays for the theater.
All visitors to the theater were divided into 2 groups - guests of honor and ordinary spectators. The guests of honor were the priests of Dionysus, Olympionists and strategists. Ordinary visitors bought tickets. To attract spectators, the authorities gave money to visit the theatre.
Actors who played in plays main task considered memorization of the text. It was pronounced with all sorts of howls, trying to convey the feelings of the characters. Masks served the same purpose: they reflected joy, grief and other emotions.
The theater of Dionysius was not always made of stone. Initially, it was built of wood and partly served solemn events. For a long time for each Dionysian holiday, temporary wooden rows for spectators and a stage were built, and only in 330 BC. they were replaced with stone ones. The stone theater consisted of 67 rows and could accommodate from 14 to 17 thousand spectators.
The first row consisted of 67 marble seats for VIP spectators. Many of them related to different eras antiquity, with the names and positions of the owners carved, still stand in place. The ledge and chair in the second row is the bed of the Roman emperor Hadrian, a passionate lover of Greek culture.
Each seat in the theater has its own name.
Skene - a tent where the actors dressed and changed (each of the actors played several roles); the stage consisted of a long narrow platform and three parties was surrounded by walls, of which the side walls were called - paraskenii, and what we call the stage - prescenium.
The semi-circle of seats for spectators rising in ledges was called an amphitheater.
Orchestra - a place between the stage and the amphitheater. Here was placed the choir, which was controlled by the coryphaeus (the leader of the choir).
There were 2 types of performances in the theater.
The first is tragedy. The word "tragedy" comes from the Greek words goat and song, that is, "the song of the goats." This name again leads us to satyrs - companions of Dionysus, goat-footed creatures who glorified the exploits and sufferings of God. Very often, actors who played tragic roles stood on wooden blocks - they were better visible. So they tried to emphasize the "high", sublime nature of the tragedy. The Greek theater did not know scenery in the usual sense of the word. This influenced the design technique of the Greek tragedy. Actors wore masks, koturny ( high shoes on wooden heels) and long to toe cloaks (their color depended on the role - kings, for example, wore red cloaks). All this was supposed to give the actor high growth and majesty, likening him to the god or hero he portrayed. In accordance with this, the gesture of the actor was exaggerated, and his recitation was solemn, pathetic.
Ancient Greek theatrical art reaches its highest flowering in the work of the three great tragedians of the 5th century. BC e. - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - and the comic poet Aristophanes, who also worked at the beginning of the 4th century. BC e. Each of them paid more attention to specific and specific issues, but they were united by the desire to live in a democratic Athenian society and be guided by the principles that were proclaimed by him as fundamental.
Comedy was another popular theatrical genre. The word "comedy" comes from the Greek - procession and "song of the procession." This is a description of the procession of a drunken crowd of mummers, showering each other with jokes and ridicule at rural holidays in honor of Dionysus.
Chionides and Magnet, about whom almost nothing is known, belonged to the older generation of comedic poets, Cratin, Eupolis and Aristophanes belonged to the younger generation, only fragments of their works have survived.
The most popular comedy playwright was Aristophanes, who wrote the comedy The Birds. The comedies of Aristophanes are distinguished by the richness of their ideological content, the expressiveness of the theatrical form. He is both its pinnacle and completion. In the second half of the 4th c. BC e., when socio-economic conditions in Greece changed dramatically, the ancient comedy lost its basis.
It was thanks to their developed and diverse system of education and upbringing that the ancient Greeks managed to create a similar level of culture, which laid the foundation for most cultures of our time. Ancient Greece, highly developed for its era, set the standard of genius and beauty in culture, literature, architecture and music, which mankind still uses.
It is noteworthy that by the end of the 5th century BC. in Athens it was impossible to find a single free person who could not read and write.
This is due to the fact that at this time schools began to be organized. The basis of education was equal mental and physical development, the Athenians preferred their children to be educated not only intellectually and musically, but also to be physically developed.
Principles of Education in Ancient Greece
The educational system used noble competition, which was a skillfully chosen stimulating force for achieving the highest results. The Athenians used agonistics - the principle of competition, in which competition occurs between individuals and groups in various areas of life.
Boys' education
The boys were supposed to have three teachers: a grammarian, a pedotribe and a cytharist. The grammarian initially taught the children to read and write, and when they fully mastered these skills, further education consisted in the study of ancient literature and legislation. And the kifarist was supposed to teach children how to play instruments such as the lyre and the cithara.
Main task physical education was preparing for military service, because it was urgently needed so that the young men could defend their homeland. And with the help of the pedotribe, children learned to run, jump, throw javelins and discs, the pedotribe can be called a gymnastics teacher. In such ways, children learned the history of their country, its customs and traditions, developed endurance and the ability to endure any trials, perseverance in achieving their goals. Also, with such training, the future champions of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece were brought up and trained.
Education in the oligarchic Sparta was carried out with great emphasis on physical training boys, the ability to endure deprivation, hunger, pain and cold was the basis of the training of any Spartan.
From the 4th century BC for teaching began to attract philosophers who could teach children wisdom. Sophists taught the art of rhetoric and the art of argument - for life in ancient Greece, these skills were extremely important. In 392 BC. the school of rhetoric of Isocrates was founded, and a few years later the famous Plato's Academy was opened.
Girls' education
If we talk about the education of girls, it should be noted that until the age of seven they were under the care of their mothers and nannies. And from the age of seven they learned weaving, spinning, the ability to read and write. Their education directly depended on the wishes and possibilities of the family in which they grew up, because the state shifted the obligation of educating girls to their families.
Raising Children in Ancient Athens
A child up to seven years old - both a boy and a girl - was under the supervision of a mother or a nanny. They lived with their mother in the female half of the house - the gyno. Children under seven years of age went mostly naked, this was due to the Greek unpretentiousness in clothing and practicality.At two or three years old, the boys passed from the hands of the nurses under the supervision of teachers, special slaves who, for one reason or another, could not do housework, he had to constantly look after the child, and subsequently take him to school.
The Greeks well understood how important, although not easy, in raising children to keep the measure, not resorting to too harsh methods, but also not allowing the child to grow up spoiled and pampered. “Delicacy makes the character of children heavy, quick-tempered and very impressionable to trifles; on the contrary, the excessively rude enslavement of children makes them humiliated, ignoble, hating people, so that, in the end, they become unfit for life together". Here Plato speaks of the observance of the measure in the upbringing of children, the golden mean must be found everywhere, especially in upbringing.
The child grew up and little by little his horizons became wider and the world of his ideas richer. This happened thanks to fairy tales, toys, joint games and communication with peers.
Older children sculpted toys for themselves out of clay or wax, they built sand palaces, rode on sticks, harnessed dogs or goats to carriages or small carts, played blind man's blind man's. Little Hellenes knew swings, hoops, and even kites. But most of all, children loved outdoor games. In them they are like modern preschoolers imitated the young Hellenes. They arranged competitions in running, jumping, but most of all they loved the ball game. These and similar games prepared children for the harsh youthful life that began at the age of seven, when childhood ended, and the boys came under the care of their father (they lived in the male half of the house and obeyed their father) and went to school. The girls remained in the gynaecium, under the supervision of their mother and a slave nanny.
Plato advised adults to follow children's games: children must strictly follow the rules of the game, not introduce any innovations into them; otherwise, having become accustomed to this in the game, they will want to change the laws of the state, and this cannot be allowed. Plato believed at the same time that all sciences should be taught to children not by force, playfully, because a free person should not learn any science slavishly.
From the age of seven to thirteen or fourteen, the boys studied at the school of a grammarian and citharist. At the grammar school, teachers taught children to read, write, and count. Counting was taught with the help of fingers, stones were also used, and a special counting board resembling an abacus (abacus). Children wrote on waxed boards with thin sticks (stylus). Later, they began to write on papyrus with ink using a reed stick. The teacher punished naughty and lazy people. For this he had rods and a stick.
At the cytharist school, the boys received literary education, here they were specially dealt with aesthetic education- taught to sing, recite, play musical instruments. First they read the old writers Homer and Aesop with his wise fables, then they studied the poems of Hesiod, the poems of the legislator Solon, the writings of Theognis. The citharist teacher instilled in the boys the skills to play the lyre or cithara. To the sounds of these instruments, they sang songs and hymns - solo or in chorus. Music accompanied the Greeks throughout their lives. Athletes trained to the music, hoplites went into battle. Music was played at festivals and in the theatre. The teachers also taught the boys how to ride a horse, shoot a bow, throw spears, throw stones from a sling.
At the age of thirteen or fourteen, teenagers moved to the palestra, where they did physical exercises, mastered the pentathlon (running, wrestling, javelin and discus throwing, swimming). The most respected citizens had conversations with students on political and moral themes. For best result the principle of competitiveness was applied in training - agonistics, noble and fair competition. This principle came to school from the Olympic Games.
In Athens, education was not strictly obligatory, but, nevertheless, it was considered the duty of parents towards their children. Plato on this issue notes that children who have not been given an education are completely free from any obligations to their parents. And these duties were very strict.
Children in ancient Greece were completely under the authority of the father. The main duty of children (mostly sons) in Ancient Greece was to honor and obey their parents. The son was obliged to take care of the maintenance of the parents, if they needed it. The law commands the maintenance of parents, while father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather and great-grandmother are considered parents. In addition, the son was obliged to render to his dead parents the honors prescribed by the laws of religion. It was considered a crime for a son to destroy his parents' grave or to deprive them of the funeral honors they demanded. A son who did not fulfill these duties towards his parents could be brought to justice. The choice of punishment was left to the decision of the court, which sometimes passed a death sentence.
So, all training lasts exactly ten years and ends by the age of sixteen. Plato notes that "it is not permissible that the father or the child himself increase or decrease this time of study, established by law." However, you had to pay for schooling. Although this fee was small in Athens, the sons of the poor did not go to school for long. After all, they started working early. The children of rich parents studied longer, so they became more educated people.
Wealthy parents sent their children at the age of sixteen to the gymnasium, where they continued to improve in the art of pentathlon, and also studied philosophy and literature. Much attention was paid to poetry and music. The task of the students was not only to master a certain number of texts and the ability to pronounce them in appropriate situations (at religious festivities, at feasts, etc.) The teenager was supposed to derive deeper benefits from this reading: poetry was called upon to serve aesthetic education. Music served the same purpose.
At the age of eighteen, the young men passed into ephebia, where their military physical training continued for two years. Enrollment in ephebia coincided with civil majority. Enrollment in ephebia was associated with taking an oath of allegiance to the service of the state. Taking an oath turned young man into a civilly capable person, giving him the right to inherit, the right to guardianship (among other things, over his mother), the right to dispose of property, everything except participation in political life. The ephebes took an oath that they would not disgrace the weapons entrusted to them, would not leave their comrades in trouble and would protect home altars, the borders of the state. A year later, in a solemn atmosphere in the theater, the ephebes were presented with a shield and a sword as real warriors. They spent the second year of training on the borders of the policy, on duty at guard posts. After two years, the young men became full citizens.
Ephebes performed physical exercises under the guidance of a trainer - pedotrib, and an instructor - didascalus was directly involved in military training. Ephebes were taught fencing, archery, javelin throwing, horseback riding, handling a catapult (a device for throwing arrows, spears and stones). The program of classes also provided for the further study of poetry and music, since one of the duties of the ephebes was Active participation in state celebrations. Training in ephebia in different times lasted two to four years.
But even at these levels, the training could not end. Young men in whom "the rational part of the soul prevailed" could continue their studies with philosophers until the age of 30, studying philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music theory, developing abstract thinking. The Greeks called philosophers people who sought to understand and explain how the world works - nature, man, human society. They pondered, asked themselves questions, observed. Therefore, the first philosophers were also the first scientists - they were engaged in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, geography and other sciences. The intellectually strongest students of philosophers who emerged were often involved in state activities.
Girls in Athens remained in the gynaecium, they were taught women's crafts: spinning and weaving. Although the girls did not attend school, they were taught to read and write, because the future wife of a citizen must be educated. The girls' education program included singing and dancing, which was necessary to participate in religious and social festivities. The girls also studied literature, but they were excluded from talking about literary topics among men. In male society, only hetaeras (courtesans) could shine with wit and erudition, and women from the freeborn - never. The girls stayed at home until they were given in marriage. It happened at about 15-16 years old. With rich parents, girls lived more freely and more cheerfully. In poor houses there was no time for music and dancing. Like boys, girls started working early to help their parents. Having reached maturity, girls could already get married. Having collected children's toys, the girls took them to the temple of Artemis, which indicated that childhood was over and they became adults.
Having considered the philosophical and pedagogical views of the Greeks, we can say that their idea of education was that it should be holistic, that is, complete, consisting of all the necessary constituent parts, in agreement with the Hellenic classical principle"Everything in moderation, nothing too much." Today, these parts of education could be described as intellectual education, artistic education, sports and military education. All these parts in Greece formed one inseparable harmonious whole.
This is precisely the pedagogical merit of ancient Greek philosophy, it was the first to give an idea of the whole, harmonious education, which operated until the very end of the Hellenistic era, but with the advent of Christianity was forgotten for more than a millennium.
Parenting in Ancient Sparta
In Sparta, the situation was different: from the age of seven, the boy was taken under the care of the state, that is, he was simply taken away from the family. The purpose of upbringing was to raise strong, obedient and fearless men from children. They were placed in special institutions - agels, where they were until the age of eighteen. The main emphasis was placed on physical development, there was no question of comprehensive and harmonious development, it was believed that if a person is physically developed, then everything else will take care of itself.
To identify the most dexterous and courageous, adults deliberately quarreled with each other, causing fights. Teenagers were supposed to steal food, but if they got caught on this, then they were flogged. They were punished not for stealing, but for being too clumsy and getting caught. Over the years, their upbringing became more and more severe, they cut their hair bald, forced to walk barefoot and not accept warm baths and sleep on hard cane beds.
Education in the Agellas was led by pedonomes, people specially allocated by the state. The students were divided into two groups: juniors or boys from seven to fourteen years old, and ephebes from fourteen to eighteen or twenty years old.
At the first stage, elementary intellectual training of the Spartans was limited to the ability to read and write, knowledge of several military and religious songs, as well as some information about the traditions of Sparta, about its history, religion and rituals. Also, much attention was paid to the development of "laconic speech" in children. Most Attention they gave military physical training to children, taught them to run, jump, wrestle, throw a discus and a spear, taught them to obey their elders unquestioningly, to despise slaves and their main occupation is physical labor, to be merciless to slaves. Hardening was severe: perseverance and endurance, the ability to endure any hardships and hardships, hunger, cold, pain were brought up in children, readiness for hiking, sports training, and possession of weapons was brought up. At the end of this stage, the teenagers were waiting for a test, which tested endurance, readiness for further tests. The teenager was severely flogged in front of the altar of Artemis, he was not supposed to make a sound. Another test for teenagers was kripii - raids on the settlements of slaves - helots, in order to exterminate the most obstinate slaves. Here the ability to clearly and ruthlessly follow orders was tested.
Education was the business of the entire Spartan community; often military leaders, statesmen visited agella, had conversations with children on moral and political topics, were present at competitions, admonished and punished the guilty.
The second stage from fourteen to eighteen-twenty years passed in ephebia. Real warriors have already been trained here. The young men were taught to master all types of weapons, the rules of warfare, etc. Before the end of the training, the young men passed the last test, it was called cryptia: whole year the young man had to wander through the mountains and valleys, hiding so that he could not be found, getting food for himself and sleeping right on the ground. Having served the kripia, the young man became an iren, he became a man, now he could take part in the joint meals of men taken in Sparta - fiditia. He was enlisted in the army, in which he was obliged to serve up to thirty years, only after that the young Spartan could be considered a full citizen
Girls in Sparta were brought up at home, but physical development, military training, and teaching them to manage slaves were in the first place in their upbringing. They were prepared in the mother of future citizen-soldiers. Girls did gymnastics on a par with boys, practiced running, discus throwing and wrestling. But, just as in Athens, since they had to take part in religious ceremonies They were taught sacred songs and dances. When the men went to war, the women themselves guarded their city and kept the slaves in subjection.
And what goals of education and upbringing should be set in our country? Who should our children become in the end: harmoniously developed personalities or narrow specialists looking for inquisitive researchers or obedient executive employees, etc.?
