ARELLANOUNIVERSITY

Manila, Philippines
School of Education
CA2: Professional Education
2023-2024, Second Semester

Essential Lesson 1: THREE SHADES OF ANCIENT GREEK EDUCATION

The First Shade: EARLY ATHENIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION
 Athens was the main educational, intellectual, and cultural center of the ancient Greece.
 The purpose of education in ancient Athens was to make citizens trained in the arts, and to prepare
them to both peace and war.
 Early Athenian Education was different from that of the Spartans. The former was more liberal
and oriental toward the civil society, while the Later Athenian Education was dedicated for the
development of military life.
 Women who were mainly educated at home for their roles as mothers to their children, and as
wives to their husbands; and thus, their training was to imbibe a lot of moral upbringing.
 Young Athenian Boys were tutored at home until the age of six (6) or seven (7), and then they
were sent to neighborhood schools for primary education until they were fourteen (14) years of age.
All Athenian boys were taught to read heavily by using alphabet method and write by the use of
was tablet and stylus.
 The national epic poems, Homer's Illiad and Odyssey were mandatory teach in all Athenian
elementary schools.

DISCUSSION
 Athens was the first state where there was freedom to develop all human capacities.
 Individual excellence meant a fully rounded development of mind and body (Sound
Mind in a Sound Body).
 Public usefulness meant the ability to take an active part in all the affairs of state in
times of peace as well as of war.
Aims of
Education
 If the Spartans aimed at strength and endurance, the Athenians aimed the beauty
and grace of the body, mind and spirit.
 Individual participation in all activities of the state was a must.
 Education developed all sides of individual personality to be useful for public
welfare.
 Good Citizenship was the foremost aim of Athenian Education.

 Civic Training was the dominant type of training in the Early Athenian Education
because of the desire to serve the state.
 Physical Training was taken not to develop strength but to develop the grace and
harmony of the body.
 Moral Training gave high emphasis on the virtues of Homeric Heroes as well as
Types of
Education
those for service of the state.
 Intellectual Training was needed in the participation in the assembly and in
discussion in the market place.
 Art, Music, Poetry, and Dancing were taken not to give pleasure and to be
entertained but for ennobling influence of the intellectual, moral and good cultural
training, an Apollonian ideal.

Content There were three types of schools for boys:

Studied (a)The letters school for reading and writing emphasized in the primary and
secondary schools.
(b) The music school for lyric, poetry and lyre, including learning and recitation of
poems.
(c) The gymnastic school for physical training, children were practiced wrestling,
jumping, running and throwing discus and javelin.
 Teachers in most cases dictated what to be learned while students had to write their notes
down on their wax tablets using stylus for memorization.

Paidagogos (pedagogue) was usually an aged and trustworthy slave, and remained under
Agencies of his charge throughout the period of his education; usually the chief moral influence in the
Education life of the Young Athenian Boy.

The Didascaleum was a music school for boys whose ages ranged from 7 to 16 years, who
learned reading, writing, arithmetic, poetry, and music.
The Palaestra was a school that made students engaged in gymnastic exercises, sports, and
games. From 16 to 18 years of age, students were freed from all literary and musical
studies to be in the public gymnasium for physical education.
The Ephobos was the school for youth whose ages ranged from 18 to 20 years, who spent
Organization in the military service of the state.
of Grade The Paidotribe, other young boys and men were trained in exercises, mostly athletic and
Levels military by the state drill master.
The Sophronist performed censorship of his morals which was quite puritanical in this
early period, and the exercises and drills were more severe and rigorous than in the
palaestra.

However, at the age of 20, the early Athenian man was given the privileges of full
citizenship.

 The young Athenian boy had to learn much by imitation through the example of the
living model or as a role model.
 He imitated his teachers in learning to write, and do musical and physical training.
Methods
 Examinations were not for the purpose of testing knowledge, but for testing
physical and civic capacities and abilities.
 Corporal punishment was used extensively; even the pedagogue had the power to
use it upon those in his charge.

Outstanding  The Olympic Games and the free development of all human capacities were the
Contribution
to Current
outstanding contributions the Early Athenian Education.
Education  Pedagogy as a body of teaching principles appropriate for learners up to 18 years of
age.

The Second Shade: SPARTAN ATTITUDES TOWARD EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION
 Spartans were a branch of the Dorian Greeks who settled in the Peloponnesus.
 By the ninth century, they were surrounded by groups of people known and Perioeci and Helots who
did all the manual work.
 To draw up a new constitution, as response to threats and dangers, Spartans called upon Lycurgus.
 Laws of Lycurgus became the foundation and formed the basis of the Spartan educational system.

DISCUSSION
Spartan Education had the main aim of:
 Training a powerful body of soldiers to be highly capable of surviving in the worst possible
situations, and to be always prepared in any threat against themselves and their country.
 Making Sparta a perpetual training camp and armed garrison.
Aims of  Emphasizing individual excellence in military affairs for state usefulness.
Education  Following Homeric ideal:“man of action” rather than “man of wisdom”.
 Giving individual physical perfection and habits of complete obedience.
 The Ideal Good Citizenship was every young man’s development of strength, courage,
endurance, cunning, patriotism, and military efficiency.

Types of
Education  Physical Strength for Military Training was conducted for the benefit of the Spartan
 general welfare and for rearing a nation that must be physically invincible, for developing
young man’s capability to endure hunger, thirst, torture or even death during wars.
 Domestic Training focused on providing the needs of the state with the labor force by the
slave class, more likely the women slaves.
 Intellectual Training was limited to memorizing of the laws of Lycurgus and a few
selections from Homer.

Spartan Curriculum consisted of almost entirely gymnastic and military exercises and practices
for moral and social habits which were essential to living a life of devotion and service to the state.
BOYS were taught to:
 Maintain absolute control over their appetites.
 Observe temperance in all their hands.
 Be obedient and reverent to their elders.
 Be modest and retiring until time for action.
 Be aggressive and intrepid.

GIRLS were taught to:

Content  Practice gymnastic exercises, in which modesty was never a concern.
Studied
 Strive in order to achieve vigor and womanly dignity.

Reading and writing were taught to a very limited extent. But, boys had to learn the laws of the
state and tales of the heroes of old, and to listen attentively to the conversations of elders.
Drills were given in the art of speaking which must be precise and straightforward without
verbosity. (laconic reply)
Music was taught and songs were always serious and moral—usually used as tribute to the men
who died fighting for the country.
Dancing was also taught but not for aesthetic values, it was NOT taught to develop grace or artistic
beauty, BUT for exercising the body to build strength and vigor.

The State was the one and only agency that solely controlled the education of an
Agencies of
Education
individual from birth to death. It freely dictated and maneuvered the learning and
development of all citizens.

All children were belongings of the State who decided which baby had to be permitted to
live. Weak or defective children were killed upon birth. Other infants, especially girls,
were often rescued and raised for slavery.

BOYS
 7-18 years old = enter a public educational institution
 18-20 years old = undergo professional war training; and those who demonstrated
Organization
qualities of leadership will remain in the barracks to supervise the younger boys.
of Grade
Levels  20-30 years old= take the oath of allegiance to the state and would be sent to various
army posts and military campaigns for war maneuvers and actual warfare.
 30 years old= every man would become a full-fledged citizen and was compelled to
marry and take a seat in the public assembly or council.

GIRLS
 Home was the school for girls. Nevertheless, their education was looked after by the
state so that they would be prepared to bear and rear sturdy patriotic sons.
Methods
 Spartan Education emphasized Training rather than instruction.
 Learning was through participation led by older boys with the citizens serving as
mentors and examples.
 Spartan Education was entirely an “activity” and nothing was “bookish” in nature.
 Periodic testing was carried out NOT for memory testing BUT for assessing moral
habits and physical capacities.
 Corporal Punishment was implemented and done for moral delinquencies and mental
inattention and lack of alertness.
 Every grown citizen had the right and was expected to punish any boy who would be
 caught violating rules of proper conduct.
 Emulation and Rivalry were the processes and system used extensively for the means
of stimulating learning.

Outstanding Rigid doctrine of devotion to a single purpose, which made the word “Spartan” synonym
Contributions to all the qualities and characteristics for one’s rendition of true devotion.
to Current
Education ROTC is anther contribution of Spartan Education.

The Third Shade: LATER ATHENIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION
 The life of Athenians in the later period changed in their educational views and practices after the Persian
Wars.
 Athens began to take more on exchanging ideas with traders, travelers, and other foreigners. They
developed more interests for a more diversified community. As a result, the old traditions were
abandoned, and new ideas emerged.
 The activity of trading brought to an individual's wealth.
 Genuine Service to the State was not the measurement of greatness, but wealth and power.
 Political skills were no longer restricted.
 Citizenship was opened to all free inhabitants and new opportunities were offered to the hands of young
men of the city.

DISCUSSION
Later Athenian Education aimed for the:
 Preparation for personal advancement toward active and successful life.
 Development of young men’s individual excellence for individual success.
 According to Protagoras, a man is the measure of all things. Knowledge comes from
Aims of senses.
Education  According to Socrates, universal concepts of piety, temperance and justice must exist in
every man and must be understood through thinking. To apply these universal concepts,
virtue is needed.
 For Aristotle, man has to make rational living: the man’s balance exercise of this thought
and conduct.

1. Intellectual Training was the higher type of education that must increase intellectual
acuteness in discriminating what is best for a person to think and do.
2. Professional Vocational Training developed public speakers who must be equipped with
Types of
the ability to deliver speech persuasively for personal gains and advantage.
Education
3. Cultural and Aesthetic Training was done for enjoyment and development of skills for
playing rod instruments &other forms in musical instruments that could widen one’s range
of the musical identity forms.

o The content of elementary education remained somewhat the same as during the earlier
Athenian period that emphasized reading, writing, arithmetic, chanting of the poetry, and
gymnastic exercises.
o For higher education, instead of physical and military exercises, literary and intellectual
subjects were given emphasis.
Content o The sophists extroverted grammar into rhetoric, declamation and argumentation together
Studied with the practical use of rules of conduct.
o Socrates did not believe in any formal educational content, the beliefs in gaining from
just plain learning by observation and gaining experiences.
o Plato advocated the lower stages of training: the four subjects such as arithmetic,
astronomy, geometry, and music. In higher educational stage, he advocated philosophy.
o Aristotle advocated the physical and moral formation at the lower level of education.
For higher level, he advocated civic training and the development of reasoning.

Agencies of 1. Dramatists in Private Elementary Schools gave emphasis on formal literary exercises
Education and hair-splitting discussions. Musical instruments were introduced and other physical
trainings were relaxed for aesthetics.
2. The Sophists in Higher Education for students aged sixteen were given purely literary
and intellectual training, but NO formal schooling was given.
 3. The Philosophers started streams of influence that ultimately developed into agencies that
paved the way for the coming the Rhetorical Schools.

FOUR LEVELS OF EDUCATION

1. Home Education(birth-7 years old)- usually conducted by slaves
2. Primary Education(7- 13 years old) usually offered by private schools
3. Secondary Education(13-16 years old) by the private schools
4. Higher Education (16 years old onwards) by higher rhetorical and philosophical schools
Organization
of Grade Plato’s Organization and Divisions of Activities in Education
Levels 1st Division (birth – 10 years old):play, exercise, games and tales
2nd Division (10 – 20 years old): music, gymnastics, and military skills
3rd Division (20-30 years old): mathematics, astronomy, dialectic and philosophy
Aristotle’s Suggestions
 From Birth to 7 years old: Development of good, physical, and moral habits
 From Seven to puberty: Training of emotions
 From Puberty to 21 years old: Training in civic virtues and reasoning

1. Lecture Method- To develop individual thinking emphasizing the acquisition of

superficial learning by memorizing set of speeches
2. Bookish or Schoolroom Method-where learning was superseded by the doing or activity
methods
3. Dialectic or Quiz Method (Socrates)-To bring the pupil to the place where he would be
Methods of
Instruction
able to see his own ignorance and acquire the attitude of true learner.
Ironic or Destructive Stage- To bring the pupil’s unconscious ignorance to
consciousness and awareness through questioning.
4. Maieutic or Constructive Stage- To lead the pupil from conscious ignorance to clear and
rational truth.

Outstanding 1. Socratic Method of Teaching is the greatest contribution for the development of a theory.
Contribution His method is to get the pupils to think for themselves and to see things as they really are.
to Current 2. The Realm of Humanities such as Philosophy, Mathematics, Arts and Classical Literature
Education

References Wilds, Elmer Harrison.( Copyright 1936, 1942). The Foundation of Modern Education. Rinehart and
Company, New York, USA.
https://cactusporpoise.weebly.com/ancient-athens.html
https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Athens
https://kirusuf.wordpress.com/education/education-in-athens/
https://www.academia.edu/31076775/EARLY_GREEK_EDUCATION_and_ROMAN_EDUCATION

Professional Dr. Ferdinand C. Lacuata

Lecturer:

Three Shades of Ancient Greek Education—Two Guiding Questions:

1. What is the focus of education by the early Athenians?... the Spartans? … the late Athenians?
2. Which is accurate: are these three periods contrasting or complementing or developing?

Journal 1: Three Shades of Ancient Greek Education—Contrasting or Complementing or Developing? (15

points)
Write your Journal 1 in FIVE paragraphs with these specifications:
FIRST paragraph for what you have learned from the educational focus of Early Athenian Education.
SECOND paragraph for the educational focus of Spartan Education.
THIRD paragraph for the educational focus of Late Athenian Education.
FOURTH paragraph for summary and conclusion whether the shades of Ancient Greek Education were contrasting.
or complementing or developing.
FIFTH paragraph for your personal realization from what you have learned from the three shades of Ancient Greek
Education.

REMINDERS:
(1) Encode your ONE-TWO-paged Journal in a legal size of 8.5 x 14 using Calibri 11; single spacing within a
paragraph, but double spacing between paragraphs.
(2) Submit it on or before April 19,2024 to this Gmail: lacuataferdie@gmail.com.
(3) Be ready for a formative test in multiple choice type on April 20, 2024 to be uploaded at exactly 11AM via
google form for 1 and ½ hours.
(4) NO MORE answers to be accepted after 12:31 pm.

PLEASE BE GUIDED ACCORDINGLY…