Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/731

* SCHOOLS. 661 SCHOOLS. boys. One, the niusital m- literal}' school, was taught by a grammatist. Instiuction in the non- literary phases of music was often given by a eitharist. The other school, the palicstra or gymnastic school for boys, was under tlie pwdo- tribe. In the -literary school the curriculum in- cluded reading, writing, arithmetic, and in some cases drawing and geography. The poets, espe- cially Homer, were for the most part the authors read. Arithmetic was very simple, being that necessary for ordinary business. The abacus was used. In writing, younger pupils employed the wax tablet and the stylus, older ones, pen and ink, with papjrus. jNlaps are known to have been in use. Older students attended a gynuuisium, where the instruction was more of a professional character. Younger boys were accompanied to school by a pedagogue (7rai5a7u76s), to whom was intrusted the general oversight of the con- duct and welfare of his charge. The pedagogue was usually a slave. The hours of daylight were all consumed at school. At Rome primary instruction was given in the Indus. Eeading and writing were here taught, and sometimes arithmetic. Frequently, however, a special teacher of arithmetic was employed. Pebbles (calculi) w'ere used in figuring, and the stylus and wa.x tablet in writing. The books were rolls of manuscript carried in wooden boxes. The schools were conducted as private ventures and were sometimes held in the open air. Usually, however, they were in mean and sparsely fur- nished apartments. The children sat on the floor. The work was largely that of committing to memory, and discipline was severe, flogging being a common resort. The ])edagogue existed as in Greece. At about 12 years of age the boy passed into a secondary school, that of the grantiitaticus. Here he was taught grammar, Greek, and a little geography and geometry. The quarters were usually somew'hat better than those of the Indus. Children sat on benches, while the master occu- pied a raised seat or cathedra. In later times some of these schoolrooms were adorned with works of art. The elementary teacher among both Eomans and Greeks was held in low esteem, if not in positive contempt. During the Middle Ages elementary schools existed in connection with the monasteries, the cathedrals or collegiate churches, the hospitals, and the guilds. As the Church conceived educa- tion to be its function, wherever an association of the clergy existed some instruction was com- monly carried on. Each monastery usually pro- vided quarters and a schoolroom for its novices or ohlati. In 817 the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle decreed that the externi, or pupils not preparing for holy orders, should be separated from the others. The instruction in the different monas- teries was of widely varying merit. It began with exercises in reading the Latin psalter, little if any attention being paid to its meaning. At the same time there was practice in copying on wax tablets. The pupils were trained to sing the church services, and a little instruction in arithmetic and Latin was given. Secondary instruction comprised the trivium (q.v. ) and the quadriviiim (q.v. ) constituted the higher education. The schoolrooms, methods, and discipline were in harmony with the ascetic spirit of the time. Shortly after the beginning of the 'trivial' studies, boys not destined for the Church were usually withdrawn from the school, ilore advanced novices were set to teach lower classes. A considerable number of the pupils in the monastic and hospi tal schools were charitably cared (or, and in many institutions no great pains were taken with their instruction, except to render them cU'ective in per- forming the church services, in general, however, instruction was free, those having means pro- viding for their own mainti'uancc. The guild schools, taught ordinarily by the chaplain of the guild, gave a little instrnction in Latin, such as would be recpiired in business, whi're accounts and correspondence were to a considerable extent in that language. More stress was laid in these schools on arithmetic, and in Germany one guild, the Rechcnmeistcr, developed this subject ex- tensively. The appearance of printed books gave a power- ful ini|)etus to learning, and the Keiiaissance in- troduced new motives into elementary and espe- cially secondary education. Power to ajiprceiatc the beauty of literature and skill in literary com- position, such as ])oetry and letter-writing, becanie objects of desire on the part of the aristocratic classes in .society. A class of lay teachers sprang into existence to satisfy the demand. Private schools became a source of considerable income and social ])rcstige to their masters, and tutorial education assunu-d unpre- cedented importance. .V variety of methods and subjects were introduced or ])ro])osed for enliven- ing the school atmosphere. In the secondary schools the Jesuits developed to a marked extent schemes by which the interest of cnuilation miglit be invoked. History became a prominent subject, and great stress was laid on the classics as litera- ture. Declamation, the acting of plays, poetic composition, etc., appear everywhere as school exercises. Study of the vernacular is gradually introduced, and later a mastery of French be- comes indispensable in the diplomat and practical- ly so in tlie cultivated man. The educational critics and reformers of the period and the sixteenth ami seventeenth centuries urge the need of making the school more interesting by mitigating the severity of the discipline, especially as regarded corporal punishment, by increasing the attrac- tiveness of the schoolrooms, by introducing gj'ui- nastic exercises, study of the world of nature at first hand, and illustrated textbooks. Rabelais, Jlontaigne. Conu'uius (<i.v.). and Locke re])resent the advanced thought of the time. A prevalent custom was to send youths traveling accompa- nied by a tutor. Even before the Renaissance the custom of wandering from monastery to monas- tery existed. The development of vmivcrsities in- creased the practice of traveling. Frequently students without means begg<'d their way. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there flourished in Germany the Riiterncndnnicn, or academies for nobles. They were usually situ- ated in the capital city of a ])rincipality. and the students participated in the social life of the Court. Stress was laid on the study of French, and drawing and fencing masters were employed. In the English public school life of the ])criod athletic exercises came to take the prominent part they have since maintained. The Renaissance, by expanding enormously the trivium or secondary school curriculum, led to elaI)orafe systems of grading of students. The Brethren of the Christian Scliools. an Order foundcil by La Salle in IGS.T. employed for the first time in elementarv instruction the svstem of