Some Motives In Pagan Education Compared With The Christian Ideal
Subtitle: a study in the philosophy of education
Publisher: Catholic University of America
Published: 1914
Place of publication: Washington, D.C., USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 103
Table of contents: title: TABLE OF CONTENTS; title: CHAPTER I; title: Introduction; title: Aim and scope of the present work — Countries selected as types for study — Pagan countries, Sparta, Athens, Rome — The Jewish People — The Christian Ideal — Roots of Greek love of emulation — Sources of this work — Increased inheritance of man today — The Christian inheritance.; title: CHAPTER II; title: Motives Furnished by the Homeric Epic; title: Emulation dominant — Attributed also to the gods — Emulation evidenced in cause and progress of Trojan War — Partiality of the gods — Homer, the Greek child's "First Book" — Plato's opinion of using Homer as a text — Means by which the Iliad and the Odyssey reached the child — Minstrel — Rhapsodist — Xenophon's testimony of Homer's place in education — Christian virtues almost excluded from the Iliad and the Odyssey.; title: CHAPTER III; title: Greek Athletics in Homeric and in Early Historic Times; title: Skill in athletics — Diversity of contests — Funeral games in the Twenty-third Iliad — Prizes — Regularly organized athletics in early Historic times — Tradition of existence of contests in Pre-Doric times — Exclusion of women — The Heraea — Olympic games — Other games — General provision for physical training — Period of excessive athleticism — Withdrawal of Sparta — Critics — Xenophanes — Euripides.; title: CHAPTER IV; title: Spartan Training; title: Peculiar conditions leading to differences in Athenian and Spartan training — Spartan need of training primarily for warfare — Education, a state care in Sparta — Constant vigilance— Flogging— Encouragement to steal— Content of Sparta's training — Youthful "fights" — Rewards of honor — Continued training during mature years — Criticism of Aristotle and Plato — Limitations of the system.; title: CHAPTER V; title: Athenian Training; title: Thucydides' comparison of Spartan and Athenian training — Geographic conditions making for differentiation — Training in warfare not essential — Personal perfection and personal glorification the end — No state system — Early training of the child — Private-venture schools — Texts, Homer and Hesiod — Meagre state supervision through the Areopagus — Aim of gymnastic training — Premium on physical beauty — Ephebic training — Dangers in excessive admiration for beauty of form — Rewards given the successful athlete — Limitations in Athenian training — Too much freedom — Nourished natural tendency to volatility — Prey to novelties — General estimate of the Athenian.; title: CHAPTER VI; title: Roman Education 41; title: Comparison of aims in education in Sparta, Athens, and Rome — Laws of the Twelve Tables — Paterfamilias — Power of life and death — Strictness of discipline in Roman home — Pliny's account of training in the Roman home — Education essentially practical — Probable date of first school — School of Spurius Carvilius — Worship of Lares and Penates a means of welding the family — Greek influence — Beginning of Latin literature — Effect of Greek culture — Decree forbidding Greek philosophers and rhetoricians to be tolerated in Rome — Disciplinary means in Roman schools — Horace's estimate of the flogger, Orbilius — Testimony of Suetonius, Plautus, etc. — Gradual relaxing of discipline — Tacitus' complaint — Isolated instances of awarding of prizes — Quintilian on teaching — Horace's method of opposite example — Flogging censured.; title: CHAPTER VII; title: The Jewish People 52; title: Ideal in Jewish education — Narrowness of their interpretation of the "law" — Monotheistic religion — High appreciation of their spiritual inheritance — Home education — Rise of distinctive schools not until after the Babylonian Captivity — Discipline — Restriction of abuse of parental authority — Death sentence pronounced against unruly children — Content of their education — Injunction to obey the "Law" — The Prophets — Parents commanded to teach their children — The rod as a disciplinary means — Declaration of future rewards an incentive to effort — Learning made easy through unconscious appeal to the apperception masses — Summary of incentives — Effect of the Babylonian Captivity— The Scribe— Decree of Simon ben Shetach — Disciplinary means in the schools — Pedagogical principles in the Sapiential Books— Comparison of motives in Jewish and Spartan education — Greek influence — Gymnasia ephebium — Josephus' estimate of Jewish training — Fall of Jerusalem — Feverish educational activity — The Talmud — Content of Hebrew education after the Fall of Jerusalem — Appeal to the intelligence of the child to maintain attention — Analysis of individual capacity — Aids to study — Studying aloud — Mnemonics — Young teachers proscribed — Patience — Respect for teacher enjoined — Summary of motives.; title: CHAPTER VIII; title: The Christian Ideal 72; title: Dominance of the Spiritual — The Messiah's birth — Importance — Social, Political, and Educational — Events favoring the spread of the Gospel — Disgust for the low moral level of the times — Unity of political power, language — Loss of faith in the heathen gods — Tertullian's testimony of the rapid spread of Christianity — Woman's position in Christian education — Her position in the educational schemes of Sparta, Athens, and Rome — Weakness of the marriage bond in pagan countries — High estimate of the value of human life in the Christian dispensation — Disregard for life in Sparta, Athens, and Rome — Exposure of infants — Ideal marriage scheme of Plato — Aristotle's concept of marriage and parentage — Right of life primary in the Christian dispensation — Christ's compassion for the suffering — Laws of church and land safe-guarding human life — Hospitality practiced by the Greeks, not charity — Emulation — Defects — Spiritual good, not primarily objects of sense, the desire of the Christian — Living versus preparation for life — Inhibition in pagan education — Christ's method not coercive — Dangers in negative method — Character building the aim of the Christian teacher — Strength of will and docility — Obedience to the spirit of the law — The aesthetic in Christian education — Roman training for practical excellence — Limitations — Christ's method — Utilizing the interests and instincts — The Parable — Parable of the Cockle and the Good Seed — Temporary withholding of application from all but his disciples — Significance of this — Saint Ignatius' care — Appeal to parental love— Embodiment of Christ's method in Christian Pedagogy — "Suffer the little ones."; title: CHAPTER IX; title: Conclusion 94; title: Bibliography 101