The History Of Education by Ellwood P. Cubberley (little red riding hood read aloud .txt) π
The civilization which we now know and enjoy has come down to us from four main sources. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Christians laid the foundations, and in the order named, and the study of the early history of our western civilization is a study of the work and the blending of these three main forces. It is upon these three foundation stones, superimposed upon one another, that our modern European and American civilization has been developed.
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[Illustration: FIG. 30. SHOWING THE FINAL DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE AND THE
CHURCH
The map also shows conditions as they were in Europe at the end of the fourth century A.D. Syria, Egypt, Africa, and a portion of Asia Minor were overwhelmed by the Saracens in the seventh century and became Mohammedan, but Constantinople held out until 1453. The eastern division eventually gave rise to the Greek Catholic Church of Greece, the Balkans, and Russia, while the western division became the Roman Catholic Church of western Europe. At Constantinople Greek learning was preserved until the West was again ready to receive it. The Eastern Empire for a time retained control of Sicily and southern Italy (the old Magna Graecia), but eventually these were absorbed by western or Latin Christianity.]
THE FUTURE STORY. For the long period of intellectual stagnation which now followed, the educational story is briefly told. But little formal education was needed, and that of but one main type. It was only after the Church had won its victory over the barbarian hordes, and had built up the foundations upon which a new civilization could be developed, that education in any broad and liberal sense was again needed. This required nearly a thousand years of laborious and painful effort. Then, when schools again became possible and learning again began to be demanded, education had to begin again with the few at the top, and the contributions of Greece and Rome had to be recovered and put into usable form as a basis upon which to build. It is only very recently that it has become possible to extend education to all.
In Part II we shall next trace briefly the intellectual life of the Middle Ages, and the reawakening, and in Part III we shall, among other things, point out the deep and lasting influence of the work of these ancient civilizations on our modern educational thoughts and practices.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Point out the many advantages of a universal religion for such a universal Empire as Rome developed, and the advantages of Emperor worship for such an Empire.
2. What do modern nations have that is much akin to Emperor worship?
3. Explain why Stoicism made such an appeal to the better-educated classes at Rome.
4. Why is an emotional faith better adapted to the mass of people than an intellectual one?
5. Explain how the Hebrew scribes, administering such a mixed body of laws, naturally came to be both teachers and judges for the people.
6. Illustrate how the Hebrew tradition that the moral and spiritual unity of a people is stronger than armed force has been shown to be true in history.
7. What great lessons may we draw from the work of the Hebrews in maintaining a national unity through compulsory education?
8. Why was Jesusβ idea as to the importance of the individual destined to make such slow headway in the world? What is the status of the idea to-day (a) in China? (b) in Germany? (c) in England? (d) in the United States? Is the idea necessarily opposed to nationality or even to a strong state government?
9. Show how the political Church, itself the State, was the natural outcome during the Middle Ages of the teachings of the early Christians as to the relationship of Church and State.
10. Is it to be wondered that the Romans were finally led to persecute βthe vast organized defiance of law by the Christiansβ?
11. Show how the Christian idea of the equality and responsibility of all gave the citizen a new place in the State.
12. State the reasons for the gradually increasing lack of sympathy and understanding between the eastern and western Fathers of the Church, and which finally led to the division of the Church.
13. Explain what is meant by βa State within a Stateβ as applied to the Church of the third and fourth centuries. Did this prove to be a good thing for the future of civilization? Why?
14. Would Rome probably have been better able to withstand the barbarian invasions if Christianity had not arisen, or not? Why?
15. Show how the Christian attitude toward pagan learning tended to stop schools and destroy the accumulated learning.
16. What was the effect of the Christian attitude toward the care of the body, on scientific and medical knowledge, and on education? Was the Christian or the pagan attitude more nearly like that of modern times?
17. Why did the emphasis on form of belief, in the third and fourth centuries, come to supersede the emphasis on personal virtues and simple faith of the first and second centuries?
18. Compare the work of the Sunday School of to-day with the catechumenal instruction of the early Christians.
SELECTED READINGS
In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are reproduced:
27. The Talmud: Educational Maxims from.
28. Saint Paul: Epistle to the Romans.
29. Saint Paul: To the Athenians.
30. The Crimes of the Christians.
(a) Minucius Felix: The Roman Point of View.
(b) Tertullian: The Christian Point of View.
31. Persecution of the Christians as Disloyal Subjects of the Empire.
(a) Pliny to Trajan.
(b) Trajan to Pliny.
32. Tertullian: Effect of the Persecutions.
33. Eusebius: Edicts of Diocletian against the Christians.
34. Workman: Certificate of having Sacrificed to the Pagan Gods.
35. Kingsley: The Empire and Christianity in Conflict.
36. Lactantius: The Edict of Toleration by Galerius.
37. Theodosian Code: The Faith of Catholic Christians.
38. Theodosian Code: Privileges and Immunities granted the Clergy.
39. Apostolic Constitutions: How the Catechumens are to be instructed.
40. Leach: Catechumenal Schools of the Early Church.
41. Apostolic Constitutions: Christians should abstain from all Heathen Books.
42. The Nicene Creed of 325 A.D.
43. Saint Benedict: Extracts from the Rule of.
44. Lanfranc: Enforcing Lenten Reading in the Monasteries.
45. Saint Jerome: Letter on the Education of Girls.
QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS
1. Characterize the type of education to be provided and the status of the teacher, as shown in the selections from the Talmud (27). Compare with Rome. With Athens.
2. Characterize the attitude of Saint Paul toward the Romans (28). Does his description of Athens (29) tally with the description of the Athenians given in the text?
3. Was it possible for the Roman and the Christian to understand one another, thinking as they did in such different terms (30 a-b)?
4. Considering Pliny and Trajan (31 a-b) as Roman officials, with the Roman point of view, and taking into account the time in the history of world civilization, would you say that they were quite tolerant of rebels within the State?
5. Compare the privileges and immunities granted the clergy (38) with the privileges previously given by Constantine to physicians and teachers (26).
6. Characterize the irrepressible conflict as pictured by Kingsley (35).
Name a few other somewhat similar conflicts in world history.
7. Outline the type of instruction for catechumens as directed in the Apostolic Constitutions (39).
8. What would have been the effect of the continued rejection of secular books called for in the Apostolic Constitutions (41)?
9. What was the governmental advantage of the adoption of the Nicene Creed (42)?
10. Why did the rule of Saint Benedict (43) requiring readings and study lead to the copying and preservation of manuscripts?
11. What does the selection from Lanfranc (44) indicate as to the state of monastic learning?
12. Was there anything pedagogically sound about the letter of Saint Jerome (45) on the education of girls? Discuss.
SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES
* Dill, Samβl. Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire.
Fisher, Geo. P. Beginnings of Christianity.
* Fisher, Geo. P. History of the Christian Church.
* Hatch, Edw. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church. (Hibbert Lectures, 1888.)
Hodgson, Geraldine. Primitive Church Education.
Kretzmann, P. E. Education among the Jews.
MacCabe, Joseph. Saint Augustine.
* Monro, D. C. and Sellery, G. E. Mediaeval Civilization.
* Swift, F. H. Education in Ancient Israel to 70 A.D.
Taylor, H. O. Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.
Wishart, A. W. Short History of Monks and Monasticism.
THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD
THE DELUGE OF BARBARISM
THE MEDIAEVAL STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE AND REοΏ½STABLISH CIVILIZATION
NEW PEOPLES IN THE EMPIRE
THE WEAKENED EMPIRE. Though the first and second centuries A.D. have often been called one of the happiest ages in all human history, due to a succession of good Emperors and peace and quiet throughout the Roman world, [1] the reign of the last of the good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius (161-180 A.D.), may be regarded as clearly marking a turning-point in the history of Roman society. Before his reign Rome was ascendant, prosperous, powerful; during his reign the Empire was beset by many difficultiesβ
pestilence, floods, famine, troubles with the Christians, and heavy German inroadsβto which it had not before been accustomed; and after his reign the Empire was distinctly on the defensive and the decline. Though the elements contributing to this change in national destiny had their origin in the changes in the character of the national life at least two centuries earlier, it was not until now that the Empire began to feel seriously the effects of these changes in a lowered vitality and a weakened power of resistance.
The virtues of the citizens of the early days of the Republic, trained according to the old ideas, had gradually given way in the face of the vices and corruption which beset and sapped the life of the upper and ruling classes in the later Empire. The failure of Rome to put its provincial government on any honest and efficient civil-service basis, the failure of the State to establish and direct an educational system capable of serving as a corrective of dangerous national tendencies, the lack of a guiding national faith, the gradual admission of so many Germans into the Empire, the great extent and demoralizing influence of slavery [2]βall contributed to that loss of national strength and resisting power which was now becoming increasingly evident. Other contributing elements of importance were the almost complete obliteration of the peasantry by the creation of great landed estates and cattle ranches worked by slaves, in place of the small farms of earlier days; the increase of the poor in the cities, and the declining birth-rate; the introduction of large numbers of barbarians as farmers and soldiers; and the demoralization of the city rabble by political leaders in need of votes. Captured slaves performed almost every service, and a lavish display of wealth on the part of a few came to be a characteristic feature of city life. [3] The great middle, commercial, and professional classes were still prosperous and contented, but luxury, imported vices, slavery, political corruption, and new ideals [4] had gradually sapped the old national vitality and destroyed the resisting power of the State in the face of a great national calamity.
Rome now stood, much like the shell of a fine old tree, apparently in good condition, but in reality ready to fall before the blast because it had been allowed to become rotten at the heart. Sooner or later the boundaries of the Empire, which had held against the pressure from without for so long, were destined to be broken and the barbarian deluge from the north and east would pour over the Empire.
[Illustration: FIG. 31. A BODYGUARD OF GERMANS
A relief from the Column of Marcus Aurelius, at Rome, erected to celebrate his victories over the Marcomanni, and other German tribes.]
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