HISTORY

OF
EDUCATION
Prof. Rosario M. Almeda
PRIMITIVE EDUCATION

Differences Between Primitive Culture and

Civilized Culture

 Was relatively simple

 Had narrowly social and cultural contacts

 The organization of primitive life was tribal, not political

 Absence of reading and writing

Aims:
 Security and survival
 Conformity

 Preservation and transmission of traditions

 Fear (greatest stimulus for action, earliest motive for education

Types of Education
 Practical – domestic, vocational, physical, moral and
military
 Theoretical – religious, musical and literary

Content:
 Physical training
 Spiritual or ceremonial training
 Social knowledge

Participation of the young in rituals and ceremonies and

incidental apprenticeship to the activities – is the only
educational program
Methods of Instruction:
 Informal instruction – enculturation
 Observation and participation

 Simple telling and demonstration

 Participation

Outstanding Contribution:
 They started the rudiments of education from which evolved
the modern educational system of today.
EGYPTIAN EDUCATION
Egypt – birthplace of many great ideas that have made our
civilization what it is today – ideas of righteousness,
character, conscience, concept of god and art
Aims:
 Training of scribes
 Religious
 Utilitarian
 Preservation of cultural patterns

Types:
 Religious – respect for gods, moral conduct,
preparation for life after death
 Vocational-professional – perpetuate skills in
engineering and architecture
 Education for public administration
 Writing, reading, and language education –
hieroglyphics
Content:
Mathematics, astronomy, physics, architecture, embalming,
medicine, dentistry, law, music, dancing, playing the harp,
cymbals, lyre, guitar, tambourine

Methods:
 Apprenticeship – dominant method
 Dictation, memorization, copying, imitation, repetition

 Observation and participation

Outstanding Contribution:
 Geometrical measurement
 Surveying
Decline of Egyptian Progress:
 Refusal of the priestly class to change the accepted
rules and practices
 The old prevented the young from learning further due
to apprenticeship
 Incapacity of the Egyptian mind to ascent from the
practical and empirical to the scientific and universal
 Conceptual thinking, reasoning, creative imagination,
and intellectual curiosity were foreign to them
 They saw knowledge only as a means of practical
advancement; they have no love for knowledge for its
own sake
CHINESE EDUCATION

Basic philosophy of Early Chinese Education – based

on the writings of Confucius and other Chinese
philosophers
Aims:

 Ideological and ethical (moral) learning – stressed on the

teachings of Confucius concerning relationships, order, duty,
and morality
 Cultural development

 Civil service – to prepare to take state examinations

Types:

 Ideological and moral education – Confucian relations,

cardinal virtues
 Language education – many characters which represent an
idea – had to be mastered or memorized
 Vocational and domestic education – trade skills by men and
domestic skills by women
 Civic education – for those who like to serve in the
government
 Military education – defense and aggression purposes (big
empire)
Content:
 Five Classics – written and compiled by Confucius himself
 Four Books – contained the conversations between Confucius
and his disciples (make up the Chinese Bible
 Taoism – or the Path of Reason attributed to Lao-tse
Methods:
 The Confucian method
 Direct and exact imitation

 Memorization

Outstanding Contribution:
 Administration of civil service examinations
HINDU EDUCATION
Causes of differences in details of Hindu
education from other oriental systems:

 Caste system
 More philosophic character of Hindu sacred literature
4 Hindu Castes:

 Brahmins of priests – teachers and intellectual rulers

 Kshatriyas – warrior or military

 Vaisyas – industrial class

 Sudras – servile class or labouring class

 Pariahs or outcasts – outside of the Brhaminical social

organizations (untouchables)
Aims:
 Intellectual – knowledge of intellectual truth
 Religious – prepare for the future life

 Cultural – preserve the caste system through strict

observance of customs and traditions

Types:
 Religious – development of spiritual and emotional attitudes
 Intellectual – only for priests and teachers (knowledge in
religious literature)
 Vocational – for artisans, farmers and laborers

 Domestic – for women

 Military – for military caste

Content:
 Literature for the Brahmins – Vedas (composed of
collections of ancient religious wisdom, means
knowledge). It consists of 4 treatises – one for each of the
3 orders of Brahmins and one for the guidance in conduct
of the warrior or executive class
 Contemporary arithmetical notation

 Dancing associated with religion

 Sports – wrestling, archery, yofa

Methods:
 Imitation – pupils imitated the teacher
 Memorization – memorize the Vedas

Chief Aim of Hindu Philosophy – to reduce the

multiplicity of the phenomenal world to unity

Aim of their Ethics – to change the chaos of the world

of conduct to harmony
Aim of their religion – to escape from the transitoriness
and suffering of the present world into the peace and
enjoyment of a life to come
 The solution of their philosophical problem is found in
mysticism; of their ethical and moral problem, in
asceticism

Nirvana – means extinction (perfect peace, wisdom and

goodness). This is obtained only through extinction of
individuality

Outstanding Contribution:
 Decimal system of arithmetical notation, the use of the
symbol “o” (we can write any size of a number)
 Stratification of people in the society
HEBREW EDUCATION
The Hebrews were always invaded by their more powerful
neighbours like Rome which conquered them.
3 Great Crises in the History of the Hebrews:

 Their Deliverance or Exodus from Egypt

 The Babylonian Exile of Captivity

 The Destruction of the Temple of Solomon and the Diaspora

(dispersion of the Jews)
Aims:

 Moral – develop faithful and obedient servants to God

(Yahweh)
 Preparation for Destiny

 Holiness – before the eyes of the Lord

 Observance of Religion – Torah (essence of Jewish

Law), Decalogue (Ten Commandments)
Types:

 Religious and civic – spiritual and theocratic

 Democratic – universal, for all

 Domestic , vocational
Content:

 History of the Hebrews

 Jewish Law or Mosaic Law – Pentateuch, also called the
Torah (first five books of the Old Testament of the Bible)
and the Talmud – concerns the Babylonian captivity, the
basis of Judaic scholarship for 2000 yrs.
 Psalms and Proverbs
 Explanation of Festivities – Passover (annual feat of the
Jews to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt); the
Shabuoth (Jewish Feast of Weeks or Pentecost);
Tabernacles (tents used by the Jews as portable
sanctuaries)
Methods:
 Compulsory – for boys and girls
 Oral- spoken word, writing with stylus

 Memorization – passages

 Exposition

 Temple worship

Outstanding Contribution:
 Monotheism
 Ten Commandments

 The Bible
EARLY GREEK EDUCATION

 A.Spartan Education – based upon the laws of

Lycurgus, came up with totalitarian soldier-state
(complete obedience, rigid discipline
Aims:
 Military – greatest warrior
 Discipline – rigid

Paidonomous – supervise the boy at age 7-18 in a barracks-

like building

Methods:
 Training -not school training
 Participation - no books

 Testing – for moral life and endurance

 Discipline – corporal punishment

 Motivation – rivalry, emulation of great men, fear of public

disapproval
Contribution:
 Military education
 Development of participation

 discipline
B. Early Athenian Education – under the influence of Solon
(one of the greatest lawmakers of all time)
Aims:
 good citizenship
 Intellectual excellence
 Many sided development

Pedagogues or paidogogos – slaves who accompanied 7 to 16 yrs old

Two Schools:
 Didascaleum – music school, teacher was called kitharist

 Palaestra – gymnastics, sports, games were taught

 -where the boys (16-18) were trained by a drillmaster called

paedotribe
Methods:
 Imitation – a living model
 Participation

 Discipline –severe

 Human relations – no human relations between the

teacher and his pupils

Contribution:
 Free development of all human capacities
 Olympic Games
C. Later Athenian Education

Aims:
 By the Sophists – pragmatic and utilitarian
 By Socrates – development of the power of thinking

 By Plato – control by intellectual rulers

 By Aristotle – rational living

Two Schools of Higher Learning:

 Rhetorical schools – started by the sophists (prepared

young men for public career
 Philosophical schools – established by the philosophers

 Socrates School of Philosophy – inductive method was

used
 School of the Academy – by Plato

 Epicurean School – by Epicurus

 University of Athens
Methods:
 Lecture and memorization – introduced by the sophists
 Question and answer – called Socratic method

 Developing the natural talents – advocated by Plato

 Achieving happiness – idea of Aristotle who developed

deductive reasoning called logic

Contribution:
 Socratic method of teaching
 Produced greatest world philosophers

 Field of mathematics

 Art and classical literature

 ROMAN EDUCATION

A.Early Roman Education – judged things by their

usefulness

Aims:
 Utilitarian - for practical purposes
 Moral – produce good citizens

 Military – good soldiers

 Civic and political – participative in politics

 Religious – reverence for Gods

 Ballads and songs glorifying traits, Laws of the Twelve

Tables, religious ceremonies
Methods:

 Direct imitation – parents or teachers

 Memorization – laws of 12 tables, ballads and religious
songs
 Discipline – very rigorous
B. Later Roman Education – adopted the educational
system of Greece

Aims:
 Oratorical –public speaking and debate, vir bonus
(morally virtuous, ideally educated man – moral
character, broad knowledge, ability to speak)
 Civic – train the student for public service
Schools:
 School of Litterator – teacher of letters in the elem.
Level (ludus)
 School of Grammaticus – teacher of grammar in the
secondary
 School of the Rhetor – teacher of rhetoric in the higher
level
 Athenaeum – in the university level
Methods:
 Memorization – letters of the alphabet
 Drill and writing exercises – grammatical elements (parts of speech,
syntax, etc)
 Public speaking practices – declamations, eulogies, funeral orations,
etc

Later, state control and support of the schools were undertaken:

 Quintilian – advocated the establishment of a public school system
 Vespasian – ordered the payment of salaries of the Greek
rhetoricians
 Emperor Trajan – provided scholarships for poor students
 Antonius Pius – exempted teachers from paying taxes and military
service
 Marcus Aurelius – ordered the establishment of salary scale for
teachers
 Hadrian – started paying pensions to retired teachers
Contributions:
 Methods of organization, management and
administration
 Forerunner of many ladderized educational system

 Civil law – Roman law

 Produced Roman educational writers – Cicero, Tacitus

and Quintilian
THANK
YOU!!!