Evening star., 1933-09-10


Each scholar was an individual pupil,
momentarily receiving the entire atten-
ton Of the pedagogue; there were no
organized classes. The grammar school
and the song school concerned them
selves with the boy from his seventh
to his fourteenth year; the gymnastic
school received him at IL and occupied
him until he was 18. Such, at least,
was the rule. In Northern Greece. In
Sparta, however, as Hutton Webster
says in his EARLY European History"
more rigorous practice was in vogue.
Spartan education had single pur-
pose-to produce good soldiers and
obedient citizens A sound body formed
the first essential. At the age of
Z boy was taken from his par
ents' home and placed in a mill
tary school, Here he was trained in
marching, sham fighting and gymnas-
tics. He learned to sing warlike songs
and in conversation to express himself
in the fewest possible words. Spartan
brevity of speech became proverbial.
Above all he learned to endure hard
ship without complaint He went bare
foot and wore only single garment,
Winter and Summer He slept on q
bed Of rushes. Every year he and his
comrades had to submit to hogging
before the altar of the goddess Artemis,
and the hero was the lad who could
bear the whipping longest without CIV
ing q sign Of pain. It is said that boys
sometimes died under the lash rather
than utter q cry But Or. Webster OBJ
serves, Sparta never produced great
thinkers, poets or artists"
Liberal View In Athens
In Athens, on the other hand, espe-
cially under the Sophists and Socrates,
the greatest Of the Sophists," 450-400
BIC, a more liberal view Of education
was common, and an unorganized va
riety of secondary schooling was de-
ricians taught the elements of public
speaking, history, constitutional law
and logic Protagoras and the philoso-
pliers in general discoursed on natural
science and divinity, mathematics and
ethics, while lawyers taught what law
was necessary in a state where the
constitution was at the mercy of chance
majorities in a sovereign assembly of
5000 people. and trials at law were
settled by 600 jurymen-judges."
Socrates blazed path for Plato, and
out of their efforts the. first academy
developed. Neither accepted fees, but
each gave a more or less systematic
course of instruction extending through
three or four years. The mob consid-
cred them radicals" however. and
their interference" with the theology Of
the Athenian youth was hotly resented.
Socrates himself paid with his life for
his opinions. But his influence and
that of his disciple were exceedingly
effective, and fathers shortly began to
understand there were desirable ad-
vantages to be had from exposing their
sons to formal curriculum.
The gymnasium Of Athens originally
was a parade or practice ground for
the militia of the state, and its name
derived from the exercises being per-
formed naked. Until their fifteenth or
sixteenth year the boys of the city at
tended the palaestra or private gym
nasium in preparation for the more ad-
vanced training for citizenship and
service in the army. But physical train
ing did not cease with the termination
of military duty on the frontier. On
the contrary. it continued throughout
the life Of the student" Men Of all
ages, therefore, from Is to go or older
might be seen on the gymnasium