ATHENIAN EDUCATORS
=Literature.=--_Bulkley_, Plato's Best Thoughts; _Schwegler_, History of
Philosophy; _Morris_, Historical Tales; _Curtius_, History of Greece;
_Lord_, Beacon Lights; _Spofford_, Library of Historical Characters;
_Jowett_, The Republic of Plato; _Vogel_, Geschichte der Paedagogik;
_Emerson_, Representative Men; _De Quincey_, Plato's Republic; _Hegel_,
Philosophy of History.
SOCRATES (B.C. 470-399)
Socrates was the son of a sculptor of Athens. Though he learned his
father's trade and followed it in early manhood, he relinquished it to
devote himself to the study of philosophy, for which he had a natural
bent. In person he was far from fulfilling the Athenian ideal of beauty,
being short of stature, corpulent, with protruding eyes, upturned nose,
large mouth, and thick lips. His domestic life was not happy, his wife,
Xantippe, being a noted shrew. His failure to provide for the material
welfare of his family, though quite natural in a man to whom all
material things seemed unessential, must have sorely tried her patience.
But Socrates bore her scolding with resignation. Indeed, he seemed to
regard it as furnishing an opportunity to practice the philosophic
patience that he preached.
Socrates believed that he had a divine call to "convince men of
ignorance mistaking itself for knowledge, and by so doing to promote
their intellectual and moral development." Like many other
philosophers, he spent his time in the streets, markets, and other
public places, arguing with any one who would stop to listen or
converse. This manner of teaching was common in Athens, and he never
lacked hearers. The whole atmosphere of the classic city was charged
with the spirit of intellectual activity and philosophic discussion.
Socrates did not teach positive doctrines, but assumed ignorance himself
in order to convince others of ignorance. By a series of suggestive
questions he would lead his pupils or opponents into admissions which
finally established the truth that Socrates saw at the outset. This is
known as the "Socratic Method," or the dialectical method, and this form
of inductive teaching was an important contribution to education.
Although Socrates left no writings, his great pupils, Xenophon and
Plato, have given the world a full account of his teachings. Plato
speaks in highest terms of his moral character, declaring that "he was
not of this world." Xenophon also adds his testimony in the following
words: "No one ever knew of his doing or saying anything profane or
unholy." Socrates believed in one Supreme Being, the intelligent Creator
of the universe. He also believed in the immortality of the soul. These
doctrines were altogether contrary to Greek polytheism, the prevailing
religion of Athens, and they prove him to have been far in advance of
the age in which he lived. While he established no school, Socrates
nevertheless must ever rank as one of the world's greatest teachers and
thinkers.
In his death he fully exemplified the truth of his own philosophy. He
was accused of corrupting the youth and denying the deities, and was
condemned to die by drinking a cup of hemlock. He calmly submitted to
his fate, refusing to avail himself of an opportunity to escape.
According to the account given in Plato's "Phaedo," he spent his last
hours discussing with the friends who attended him the question of the
immortality of the soul.
PLATO (B.C. 429-347)
Plato was a disciple of Socrates, and to him we are chiefly indebted for
an account of the teachings of his great master. For twenty years he sat
at the feet of the philosopher, and drank from the fountain of knowledge
possessed by that wonderful man. He also traveled in other lands,
particularly Egypt and Italy, in pursuit of knowledge. He became one of
the most remarkable scholars and philosophers, not only of antiquity,
but of all time. When forty years of age he founded a school at Athens,
though it is not as a teacher that he is chiefly known, but as a writer
and sage. "Plato among the Greeks, like Bacon among the moderns, was the
first who conceived a method of knowledge." His great work is his
"Republic," in which he pictures the ideal State and outlines his scheme
of education, which is built on ideals of both Spartan and Athenian
citizenship. From Sparta comes the thought of an education which shall
be controlled by the State from birth; while Athens adds the aesthetical
aspects to those purely physical.
In his scheme he divided the people into the following classes:--
1. The _common people_. They should be allowed to rise, but no education
is provided for them in his scheme.
2. The _guardians_ or _citizens_, who shall study music and gymnastics.
Music includes literature, that is, human culture as distinguished from
scientific knowledge. Writing and arithmetic are also included under
music, the latter not being studied for practical purposes, but to
develop the reason.
3. The _rulers_, who, in addition to the preceding subjects, shall study
geometry, astronomy, rhetoric, and philosophy.
The State is to have absolute control of every citizen; it shall arrange
marriages, destroy weak and unpromising children, and remove the healthy
babes at birth to public nurseries, where mothers may care for the
children in common, but will not recognize or take special interest in
their own children. Boys and girls are to be educated alike. Great care
is to be taken that nothing mean or vile shall be shown to children;
their environments shall be beautiful and ennobling, though simple.
From birth to seven years of age the child is to have plenty of physical
exercise. He shall hear fairy tales and selections from the poets, but
careful censorship must be placed on everything presented to him.
Suitable playthings are to be provided, precaution taken against fear of
darkness, and by gentleness combined with firmness a manly spirit is to
be produced. Beauty of mind and body are to be harmoniously united.
From seven to thirteen intellectual as well as physical activity is
required.
The special education begins at twenty by the selection of the most
promising youths. At thirty another selection of those able to continue
their education five years more is made.
Higher mathematics, astronomy, harmony, and science constitute the work
of the first ten years, and philosophical study that of the last five.
Fifteen years then are to be given to the service of the State, after
which, at fifty, the student may return to the study of philosophy for
the remainder of his life.
Education is to be compulsory, as the child belongs to the State and not
to the parent.
Plato gave predominance to intellectual rather than to physical culture,
as he said, "If the mind be educated it will take care of the body, for
the good soul improves the body, and not the good body the soul."
He taught that it is the aim of education to bring all of the powers of
man into harmonious cooeperation.
It will thus be seen that Plato's scheme of education centers around the
oriental idea that man belongs to the State, and the main purpose of
education is to fit him to serve the State. And Plato clearly set forth
how the education which he demanded should be attained, and therefore he
is to be remembered as originating the _first systematic scheme of
education in history_.
ARISTOTLE (B.C. 384-322)[17]
Aristotle was born in Stagira in Macedonia, and from this fact he is
called the Stagirite. For twenty years he was a pupil of Plato, as Plato
had been of Socrates. Aristotle was not only one of the greatest
philosophers that ever lived, but he enjoyed the distinction of being
the teacher and chosen counselor of Alexander the Great. Much of the
greatness of the man who conquered the world and "wept because there
were no more worlds to conquer" was due to his wise teacher. Alexander
loved and revered Aristotle as much as his father, declaring "that he
was indebted to the one for _living_, and to the other for living
_well_." He assisted Aristotle in founding a school at his native place,
Stagira.
It is not simply as the teacher of Alexander the Great that Aristotle is
to be remembered in the history of education, though that would entitle
him to lasting fame. After the education of Alexander was finished,
Aristotle went to Athens, where he founded the Lyceum. Here he lectured
for many years, in the morning to his riper pupils on philosophical
subjects, and in the evening to the masses on such topics as were within
their comprehension and as would tend to elevate them.
His _pedagogy_ may be briefly outlined as follows:--
1. Education is a lifelong task, beginning at birth and continuing till
death. The first seven years are to be spent in the home under the
fostering care of the parents. During this period the child is to have
no severe tasks, but chief attention is to be given to physical
development. He must learn obedience, as the first step to an ethical
life. His food and clothing are to be simple, and his toys and games of
a character to stimulate wholesome activity. At the age of seven he is
to enter upon the direct intellectual training, and nothing must
interfere with this during the next seven years. From fourteen to
twenty-one the education is to include such exercises as directly
prepare for life. The diet is to be simple, the physical training
severe, for the double purpose of counteracting the tendencies of the
adolescent period, and of preparing for war.
2. Education includes the development of the body, the character, and
the intellect. Courage, endurance, self-denial, temperance,
truthfulness, and justice are essential characteristics to be sought.
The purpose of instruction is to develop the imperfect, untrained child
into the well-rounded, intelligent, and patriotic citizen.
3. The course of study, which begins seriously after the seventh year,
includes music, gymnastics, drawing, grammar, rhetoric, and mathematics.
Later, dialectics, philosophy, and political science are to be added.
4. Woman is to have part in education that she may properly train her
children, and may, by an intelligent understanding of the laws, uphold
the State.
5. Aristotle considered education as the most important and most
difficult of all problems. He based his pedagogy upon a knowledge of the
individual.
6. His method was the analytical. He began with things and advanced from
the concrete to the abstract.
The foregoing will show that Aristotle began the study of problems that
still occupy the minds of educational thinkers, after more than
twenty-two centuries of search for the truth. Some of the problems he
discussed have found their solution, and the seed sown by the great
thinker has come to fruitage. Karl Schmidt says, "Aristotle is the
intellectual Alexander. Rich in experience and profound in speculation,
he penetrates all parts of the universe and seeks to reduce all
realities to concepts. He is the most profound and comprehensive thinker
of the pre-Christian world,--the Hegel of classical antiquity,--because,
like Hegel, he seeks to unify all knowledge, brings together the
scattered materials of the present into one system, constructs in a
wonderful intellectual temple the psychical and physical Cosmos, the
universe and God, proclaims the destruction of an earlier culture epoch,
and sets in motion waves in the ocean of history that are destined to
influence the intellectual life of all centuries to come.... Aristotle
stands for the highest intellectual summit of antiquity,--the bridge
which binds the Grecian to the modern world,--the philosophical
mouthpiece and the intellectual master of twenty centuries."
FOOTNOTES:
[17] Brother Azarias, "Essays Philosophical."