LESSON 2

HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION

Overview:
The history of any discipline is important, but when it becomes to education, it is even
more so because the future of any country lies in its education. When we understand
the history of education, it allows us to make better judgement, to succeed where previous
philosophies and endeavors have failed.

History of Education will help you to understand how the past events shaped the present
education systems, theories and related phenomenon in the area of teacher education in
particular and education in general. (https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-importance-of-studying-
the-history-of-education)

This lesson on historical foundations of education consists of units which provide

background information on the history of education. After reading this material, the learners will
have a grasp of the basic components of and information on the historical foundations of
education.

Lesson Objectives:
After successful completion of this lesson, you should be able to:
 list down antecedents of the historical foundations of education;
 recognize the contributions of various countries in the development of education; and
 compare and contrast various phases of education in from the ancient modern era.

Course Materials:
Unit 1: Education in China
China was known as the land of the Seres, to the people of the Middle Ages, as the
empire of Cathay. The name China came from the central part of Asia and first settled around
the elbow of the Hoang River. From Hoang, they spread to the south and occupied the great
valley of the Yangtze, driving into mountain recesses, the native inhabitants, thus becoming the
predominant race. They gave up a nomadic for an agricultural way of life. They drained the
flooded districts, built canals and roads and constructed wooden buildings.

In Chinese literature are preserved some of the world's most ancient historical and
philosophical writings. The Five Classics or the King Books, are the oldest records of the nation.
Four of them were revised by Confucius who added the 5th, a history of his own time. Besides
the Five Classics, there are also the Four Books, which were written by the disciples of
Confucius, chief among whom was Mencius. The Five Classics are: (1) Shu-King, the history of
the dynasties and the laws, (2) Y-king, a work on philosophy and magic: (3) Shi-King, the
ancient odes consisting of 311 poems which are moral and domestic in character; (4) Li-King,
an account of national customs and ceremonial observations; (5) Tshun-Tsin, spring and
autumn Annals, by Confucius.

The Four Books are commentaries on the classics. They include: (1) The Great Learning
treaties (3) The Analects of Confucius (4) The Works of Mlencius, a pupil of that philosopher.
Lao-tsze is the author of Tao-the-King, Book of Reason and Virtue, which treats of philosophy
and Theology. A work of pedagogical value is the Primary Education by Chu Hse, of the 12th
century. The Doctrine of the Mean, a continuation of the first

The Chinese have a most unwiekdy language. It is monosyllabic and has no alphabet.
Words now have ideographic and phonetic elements. The symbols are divided into 6 classics
and can be reduced to 2,425 all of which are to be memorized by students of the language.
They are perpendicular in arrangement and are read from top to bottom. The columns are read
from right to left.

Confucius, 551-478 B.C., philosopher and statesman, is the inspiration of the Chinese
system of education. He made respect for all that was ancient and ancestral among his people
a virtue. Reverence for parents, living and dead, may be said to be the keynote of his teaching.

Lao-tsze, 604-515 B.C., was likewise a philosopher professing a very exalted doctrine.
His system of religion, Taoism, is much more philosophical than Confucianism. "Tao" means the
way and also the way-farer, it is man and his destiny. The secret of its strength is his emphasis
on the principle of returning good for evil, advocates a noble and unselfish morality and teaches
the freedom of the will, the perfectibility of man and a knowledge of supreme being in the three
persons.

Master Chu Hsi, who because of his wide learning was called "Prince of Knowledge." In
a work entitled "Primary Education" he formulated many sound educational principles far in
advance of the thought of his time. From earliest times, formal education of some sort has
existed and for 3,000 years it has been a matter of national importance.

With the rise of the Nationalist to power, long range plans were formulated. The National
Control of Education was guided by clear objectives and animated by new National
consciousness. Funds were appropriated by the government to aid private and public schools.
Equal opportunities were given to boys and girls for higher education. Six years of basic
education for children between 6-12 was provided. Three types of the secondary schools... the
Middle School, the Normal School, and the Vocational School offered further training to the
youth of the Nation.

The fundamental principle and policies of the new regime, the People's Republic of
China, are derived from the Russian materialistic system of thought and action.

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWcAlUzVocw

Read:
https://news.cgtn.com/news/774d544f796b7a6333566d54/share_p.html
https://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu.php
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/brief-introduction-the-chinese-education-system
Unit 2: Education in Japan

The history of the Education of Japan is traced back to the 3rd, century of our Era. Only
the members of the nobility were instructed and knowledge of Japanese history and laws were
required.

The Tokugawa Shuguns prohibited the propagation of Christianity, proscribed the

reading of western books that had come into Japan with the Dutch traders and encouraged
Buddhism and Confucianism whose moral teaching inculcated ideas of submission and the love
of peace.

The Japanese language which is polysyllable and possesses an alphabet, contains

many words and characters of Chinese origin. Unlike the Chinese the words are arranged in
sentence structure and are read from left to right. Verbs signifying greetings, salutations,
apologies and requests, indicate extreme humility on the part of the speaker. There are no
articles; prepositions follow the words they govern. The Japanese have produced no great
literary work.

Shintoism, which literally means "Way of the Gods," is properly the religion of Japan.
The emperor is not only the high priest but also the representative and direct descendant of
divinity.

Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the 6th century. Chinese missionaries built
temples and set up statues in Japan. Although the Japanese borrowed Chinese styles of
architecture, sculpture and the art of painting, they modified and adopted Chinese arts to their
own taste and needs.

Under the auspices of the occupation forces, another type of school organization similar
to that of the United States was introduced. A 6-year's elementary school followed by a 3 years
secondary school and 3 years high school, with a four-year university as the capstones were
provided. Compulsory education was extended to 9 years thereby giving all children 3 years of
secondary education. Co-education was recommended for all levels.
 The power of the Ministry of Education was curtailed to prevent the abuses of a highly
centralized control for purposes of militaristic propaganda and as nationalistic indoctrination.
Local school boards were given more responsibility and more authority.

The character of the Japanese people has been transformed largely thru formal
education. Their secondary schools and universities have grown in number and effectiveness
along with many technical and agricultural schools. Many of their youth have frequented
America and European seats of learning and directly responsible for the introduction of western
ideas into Japanese educational life.

Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATvnonxsBrw

Read
https://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/schools/

Unit 3: The Reformation in Germany

The Reformation of the 16th century, which was primarily a religious and social
movement, had an immediate and serious effect on education. The people lost interest in
education, and refused to send their children to schools. This prompted the complaints of Luther
and Melanthon. According to Paulsen, the Protestant historian, "Wherever Luther prevails, the
cause of literature and learning is lost."

Some other notable effects of the Reformation were to obtain the support of the state for
the maintenance of schools, since the church of the Reformers was unable to maintain then; to
endeavor to instruct all adherents of the new faith in reading, that they may exercise their
privilege of private judgment and to disseminate the Bible more widely in the vernacular. It
cannot be concluded that the Reformation first brought out the Bible in the vernacular for in
Germany alone there were at least 20 editions before that of Luther.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born at Eisleben, the son of a miner. The family moved
to Miansfeid where he began his school life. Luther studied the humanities at Magdeburg and
Eisemach and entered the University of Erfurt to take law at the age of 18. He entered the
monastery of the Hermits of St. Augustine in Erfurt in 1505. I le was ordained a priest in 1507
and appointed a teacher of philosophy in Wittenberg the following year. He continued his
studies and was recalled to Erfurt again.
Luther's visit to Rome in 1511 hastened his advancement in rank. In 1512 he received
his doctorate in theology and in 1513 he lectured on the Bible. In 1515, an administrative
appointment broadened the scope of his activities as a district vicar. He continued to lecture on
the Bible, till he disregarded the monastic regulations and the admonitions of his confessor and
found no comfort in the sacraments.

Luther's sermons there are many references to the instruction of the young, as for
instance in his discourse of the duty of keeping children at school (1530) and also on the dignity
of the teacher and respect due to him. His German Bible and his Catechisms and the Fables of
Aesop, which he published, were all of educational influences.

Philip Melanchthon (1497) was a much more effective educator than Luther. He entered
the University of Heidelberg at the age of 13. He obtained the Bachelor's degree in 1511;
broadened his studies by courses in astronomy, astrology, mathematics, law and medicine and
in 1514 at the age of 17, won the master's degree and was appointed an instructor in Latin
classics; four years after became a professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, which
lasted for forty-two years.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1534), the Swiss Reformer, was a humanist and friend of Erasmus.
He preached freely against the doctrines and practices of the church especially against
indulgences, pilgrimages and devotion to the blessed Virgin. His work in Latin on training the
young (1523 rendered into German, 1521) was a moral rather than an educational treatise and
was intended for children living in good circumstances.

John Calvin (1509-64) the son of lawyer had a minor order from the church, but his
training was chiefly in law and letters. He addressed himself as a reform writer chiefly to the
learned. His claim as an educator is chiefly based on the influence of the college of Geneva,
which he organized and in which he taught.

Read
https://www.academia.edu/38001363/Education_in_Germany_1871_-_1945
https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-Reformation

Unit 4: Education in Egypt

Historical researchers located Egypt as the oldest civilization known to man. Egypt
would have been the first subject of study in the history of education had it organized a system
of education ever since.

Up until the 19th century the chief source of our knowledge of the history of Egypt was
the Greek historian, Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century B.C.

The Egyptian King claimed supreme authority in all civil and religious affairs. His title,
"Pharaoh, has distended thru the Hebrews and was derived from Pero, which is Egyptian for the
"Great House."

The people were divided into classes which although not so rigid as the castes of India
remained nevertheless exclusive. The nobles lived in houses of brick and wood with latticed
windows, gaily painted and decorated with bright colored hangings. The living rooms were
sumptuously furnished with chairs, stools and chest of ebony artistically carved and inlaid with
ivory, while rich vessels of alabaster, copper, gold and silver were placed upon standards of the
finest workmanship. The Lord of the house wore a white linen kilt and very often a broad collar
of gold and precious stones. His wife and daughters wore longer wigs and jeweled necklaces
and bracelets with simple sleeveless, closefitting garments of fine linen.

The peasants lived in mud-brick, thatched-roofed houses, tilled the ground and tended
the flocks for their masters. They were serfs who could be sold with the land from one master to
another. In the towns were found the merchants, jewelers, scribes and other craftsman.

The highest class in Egyptian society was that of the priests, which with the military or
warrior class, constituted the privileged elements of the nation.
Watch:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/62958.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5FSQGEc4_A

Read:
https://wenr.wes.org/2019/02/education-in-egypt-2

Unit 5: Greek Education

The Greeks are the Hellenic branch of the Indo-Europeans. The people of ancient
Greece style themselves Helenes and called their country Hellas. The Greeks are the heirs of
the Orient but their influence upon the European civilization differs from that of Asia because
they developed a culture of their own higher than any achieved among Oriental peoples.

One of the most important migrations of Greece was the coming of the Dorians into
Sparta, which resulted in a general shifting of the Greek population affecting nearly all the tribes
of Greece. Our knowledge of Greek civilization during the pre-historic age is derived largely
from legends, from monuments or material relics and from the epic poems of Homer.

The richest source of information on the pre-historic period we have in the Homeric
poems were the Iliad and Odyssey, which are supposed to have been written in the 9th century
B.C. Homer based his story on the romantic lays which minstrels had sung to the
accompaniment of the lyre in the palaces of Greek princes’ 3 centuries previous to his time. The
first peoples of historic Greece to attain political distinction were the Dorians and Ionians. The
Persian Wars between 500 and 479 B.C. resulted in the temporary supremacy of Athens.

SPARTA

The Spartans were conquerors of Laconia and lived in Sparta, the chief city. The
original inhabitants of Periocci and Helots were held in subjection under a rigid military regime.
Only the Spartans were given the rights of citizenship. The Pericians, were freemen,
landowners, traders and artisans who paid a heavy tax to the Spartans. The Helots were the
serfs who tilled the land allotted to the citizens.
 The life of Spartans was a perpetual training for war. From 8 to 30 years he slept in
barracks, and up to 60 years he ate his meals in the community. The individual who failed to
subscribe were excluded from the masses and lost his citizenship. A great sport of Spartan
Education was physical – horseriding, gymnastics, swimming and running exercises. Respect
to service for superiors, obedience and truthfulness were taught in a practical way. Their
education was socialistic and utilitarian, designed solely for the state.

ATHENS

The Athenians were the most noble of the Greeks people for political progress and
educational achievement.

The schools of Athens operated before breakfast till sunset before supper. Schools
were conducted by individuals. Since the mite of Solon, the lawgiver certain supervision had
been exercised although the state did not own the schools.

The Athenian ideal of education was the aesthetic – a cultural soul in a graceful and
symmetrical body. Thru a harmonies physical, intellectual and social development was to be
produced the perfect; the soldier, prepared to defend the state in times of war, and the citizen,
adhering to the culture of the nation by the pursuit of the beautiful in times of peace.

The teachers were supported by the fees from their pupils. Only the well paid could
furnish schoolrooms for their classes. The teachers of the poor held their classes in the open
air, usually under public buildings like the temples or in quiet streets.

In teaching reading the Greeks followed the synthetic method. The letters of the
alphabet wee first taught then the syllables and the words. Primary education occupied 8 to 9
years as compulsory.

Plato, regarded the whole matter of mental fidelity as a lost cause.

At 18, the young man finished secondary education. As a youth he will be given rigid
miltary training for two years. His training continued throughout the rest of his life, which
included architecture, sculpture, painting, drama and art in general.
 Oratory had the greatest influence in the liberal training of the Athenians. The greatest
representatives were Lysiao, Socrates, Demosthenes and Aeschines.

The Sophists or wisemen were at first wandering teachers. Protagoras and Gorgias
were men of talent who travelled widely and were able to discuss competently the literary,
political and scientific questions of the time.

Pythagoras, who hailed on the island of Somos, was not entirely the product of Greek
education. He had travelled and studied in Persia, India and Egypt. Pythagoras was always
held in the highest reverence by his followers and his word for any doctrine gave it indisputable
authority.

Socrates was born in Athens. He learned his fathers’ art but developed a talent beyond
the ordinary. He was a seeker after the truth. He took the highest theory of Protagoras, “Man is
the measure of all things.” Socrates’ plan of teaching was by personal discussion or dialogue.

Plato, after the death of his master Socrates, he left Greece, spending the next twelve
years travelling and studying in Egypt and in Greek colonies of Italy and Seville. Plato accepted
the idea that goodness was to be attained by means of virtue or harmony or order under the
right of reason. Abstract thinking is developed by arithmetic, plane and solid geometry, music
and astronomy.

Aristotle, the most famous of Plato’s disciples, was a native of Stapera, Macedonia.
From the age of 17 to 37 he studied under Plato as the most brilliant student in the academy.
He left Athens after the death of Plato, continuing his studies and research. Four years
afterwards he was called to be the tutor of the young Alexander of Macedon, an office which he
held for 3 years.

Socrates, was honest, Plato was spiritual and Aristotle was intellectual.

The Greeks were a vigorous, liberty – loving people who made them attain real
excellence in physical beauty, in artistic expression and in profound thought. Greek schools of
philosophy and rhetoric continued in Rome who attended the University of Athens and
Alexandra.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd0fYbXT9YU

Read:

https://cloud5j.edupage.org/cloud/GREEK_EDUCATIONAL_SYSTEM.pdf?z%3Ann0puwq6aF
%2FfuNolBQbAsT4rC%2BoEobZdOvjcp7%2FKOZzerIqYAHMdiTLFupF%2FNLBq

Unit 6: Roman Education

Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin brothers born to Rhea
Sylvia who was forced to become vestal virgin. Rome was a petty city-state ruled by kings, who
were frequently at war with their neighbors, and that the Tarquins, the last dynasty of kings,
were overthrown in the 6th century B.C. From the Extruseans the Romans learned to write and
by them they were to build temples for their Gods.

In 590 B.C. Rome became a republic. The government was in the hands of Aristotle
because the Romans were divided into classes. The city proper was built on hills, three of
which were the Palatines, the Aventine and Capitoline. The other hills were original. Rome, was
small republic but thru conquest, it dominated the whole of Italy. Was among Romans in those
days was highly honored and a respectable occupation.

The Roman education was the formation of the good citizen and good warrior and
soldier. Education was primarily the concern of the family

The aim of the early Roman education was to repress the freedom of the individual in
the interest of the state-to make a nation of brave warriors and of dutiful citizens. The principal
virtues were piety, obedience, manliness, courage, bravery, industry, honesty, prudence,
earnestness, sobriety, dignity, fortitude and gravity.
 Utility rather than harmony or grace was most important to the early Romans. They
judged everything by its usefulness and effectiveness.

Early Roman education was essentially practical training for the affairs of life. Emphasis
was placed upon physical training, military, civic and vocational.

There was moral training. Moral rights and duties were clearly defined by law, and for
every right there was a corresponding obligation. Youths were trained to obey the moral law, for
the moral law and the civil law were, in practice, one and the same.

The content of early Roman education was distinctly practical and moral in character.
Children were taught home life, citizenship, and ancestral traditions. The children memorized
and chanted legendary ballads glorifying and traits esteemed by the Romans. They memorized
religious songs and the laws of the Twelve Tables.

The laws of the Twelve Tables formed a large part of the content of education. What the
laws of Moses were to the early Hebrew education, the laws of Lycurgus to the Spartan
education, the laws of Solon to the early Athenian education, the laws of the Twelve Tables
were to the Romans.

At homes, the younger boys and girls were encountered to play and romp to make them
healthy and strong. The girl was trained at home by their mothers in domestic arts and the
moral virtues. She was also taught to be devoted to the state and be ready to serve at all times.
Reading and writing were little needed and so were seldom taught.

The methods used was mainly that of direct imitation and by practicing the activity or
virtue often enough to develop it into a fixed habit. Great stress was placed on habit formation.
The boy learned by imitating his father, the girl and the mother. They were also urged to imitate
the heroes of the past. Thus biography as well as living examples provided models for imitation.

Discipline was exceedingly severe. Corporal punishment and even death could be
inflicted by the father at will. We could exercise this under the power known as patria
poetasters granted to the father by the ancient law.
 The Romans had a carefully organized educational ladder. They appropriated the
educational institutions of the Greeks, but perfected them into a system. For elementary level
they developed the school of the litterator (the school of the teacher of letters). This was
successor of the earlier ludus and was attended by both boys and girls from the age of 7 to 10.
For the secondary level, they developed the school of the Grammaticus (the school of the
grammar for boys only from 10 to 16. This school existed in two types: (1) the Greek grammar
school for the study of Greek grammar and literature, and (2) the Latin grammar school for the
study of Latin grammar and literature. The Roman boy attended both: but Quintilian advocated
that he should go the Greek school first and afterwards attend the Latin school. For the higher
level, there was a developed school of the rhetor (the school of the teacher of rhetoric),
providing a course of 2 or 3 years for boys from the age of 16 on.

Under the various educational system of Rome produced the great Latin authors of the
“Golden Age”. The prose writer: Cicero, Caesar, Salleist, Ling and the poets: Lucretius,
Catullus, Vergil, Horace and David. The Succeeding age is called “Silver” It yielded great
classic names like Seneca, the philosopher, Quintilian the educator; Tactus, the Historian;
Juvenal, the satirist; and Pliny, the letter-writer.

Religion was an important part of Roman education. The Romans felt very deeply the
need of religious and moral training in the formatting of character. He acknowledged the voice
of conscience and made an effort to be guided by it. The child learned his religious studies in
the home. The family hearth was the center of devotions in each household where prayers
were offered to Vesta, goddess of fire, to the Penates, the deities who guarded the house, to the
Lares, tutelary spirits of the family state.

While schools were multiplied and facilities for education became more extensive, the
aim and spirit of Roman culture had nevertheless declined. With corruption in the highest
offices of the Empire, even in the judiciary, with a priodelized and profligate aristocracy, a
heavily taxed middle class and a nation wholly lacking in morality, the career of the orator no
longer offered political purpose which became formal and artificial.

Read:
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ancient-rome/roman-education/
Unit 7: Medieval Education

Monasticism. The ultimate aim of monastic education was the same as ultimate aim of
monastic life-salvation of individual souls. The immediate aim is physical and moral discipline.
Monastic ideals were based on the principles: (1) bodily mortification, and (2) world
renunciation.

One aim of monasticism was to deny all the claims and desires of the body. The virtue of
monk was often measured by his ingenuity in devising new ways of punishing the body –
fasting, going with insufficient or coarse clothing, physical torture, etc. All this physical discipline
was for the sake of spiritual growth and the moral improvement of the penitent.

World renunciation means denying all claims on social and human institutions. The rule
of Benedict imposed upon the monk 3 vows: chastity, poverty and obedience.

The work of the monastic schools was restricted to literary training and manual training,
both of which were looked upon as phases of religious and moral education.

The Rule of Benedict declares: “Idleness is the great enemy of the soul, therefore, the
monk shall always be occupied, either in manual labor or in holy reading. The rule specified
seven hours of manual labor each day, that each monk should read the sacred literature of the
church for two hours daily.

The subject used by the monastic schools was eventually incorporated into a fixed
curriculum of the so-called Seven Liberal Arts consisting of (1) the trivium – grammar, rhetoric,
and dialectic; and (2) the quadrivium – arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Later, in the
more advanced monasteries, certain elements from Greek and Roman classical culture were
introduced. The subjects were usually studied from compendia rather than from direct source
materials.

The cathedral schools, the catechumenal schools and the monastic schools were the
only agencies for education throughout most of the medieval era. Boys were admitted to the
monastic school at the age of 10 and, after a course of training lasting for 8 years, were
admitted to the monastic order at 18. But in many monasteries and convents, in the later
centuries of the Middle Ages, boys and girls who did not intend to become monks and nuns
were admitted as pupils. They were called externi or oblati who were to take the vows and
enter the order. The head of the monastic school was the abbot.

Scholasticism. The aim of scholasticism was to support the doctrine of the church by
rational argument. It was an attempt to support authority by intellect to justify faith by reason, to
substantiate theology by logic. It was assumed that the church held possession of all final
decision by divine revelation. This truth had been accepted on faith.

Up to this time, the medieval church has been hostile to the intellectual approach to
theology; and when Erigena asserted that all true philosophy was identical with church doctrine,
it was not approved. When later Anselm expressed the same attitude, his arguments met with
approval.

Scholasticism limited itself to religious and intellectual education, the content of which
was entirely confined to theology and religious philosophy. The curriculum of scholasticism was
not so much a new system of philosophy as it was a new system of philosophizing about
theological beliefs.

In this task of devising a system the scholastics divided into 2 camps or schools of
thought: 91) the realists represented by Anselm of Canterbury believed that ideas or concepts
are the only real entities, and that the objects known though the senses are only copies of these
ideas. (2) Nominalism, represented by Roscellinus of Compiegne insisted that universal ideas
and concepts are mere convenient names, abstractions or symbols. That individual objects as
known through the senses are the only true entities. This thesis was not very favorable to such
religious concepts of God, man, original sin, and salvation; the Council of Soissons declared it
as hearsay and was suppressed.

Chivalry. As a system of education for the nobility, chivalry aimed to teach the best
ideals, social and moral, that the Teutons could understand. Chivalry sought a happy
combination of barbarian warrior with Christian saint. It taught the protection of the weak,
gallantry toward woman, honesty in everything. Chivalry provided a system of training aimed to
inculcate the rudiments of love, war, and religion.
 Chivalry education was a form of social training. It emphasized manners more than
morality. It emphasized military training and made fighting a profession; and devoted a large
share of its attention to the development of professional military skills. It also emphasized
physical training. Religious training was superficial. The Knight was trained to take part in all
the religious rights and ceremonies of the church. The literary training was mostly oral and
confined to the vernacular.
The curriculum was one of activity rather than intellect. The course of study was made
up of physical activities. At the earlier levels, it consisted of health instruction, religious
instructions, training in etiquette and obedience to superiors, training in playing harp, singing,
chess and the development of skills in riding, jousting, boxing and wrestling.

The earliest education of the child was in the home. Mother was the first teacher. Later
the lords and ladies of the castle of the father’s feudal superior were the teachers.

Guild system. This new class needed an education of a practical type. Vocational
training was emphasized, for children were to be prepared for the activities of commercial and
industrial life. Elementary instruction in the rudiments of reading and writing the vernacular and
arithmetic were required as preparation for commercial and industrial training of the guilds.
Masters were obligated to give instruction in the rudiments to their apprentices and required to
see that they received adequate religious instructions.

The chantry schools were founded out of bequests made by wealthy merchants or
traders stipulating the special priests be employed to chant masses for the repose of the souls
of the deceased patrons. These special priests also provided the city children instruction in the
rudiments of elementary education.

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJJg39wFGe8

Read:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/culture-magazines/medieval-education-and-role church

Unit 8: Renaissance Education

 The first of the modern theories of education was known as Humanism. Humanistic
education was distinct outgrowth of the Renaissance. Renaissance was a revival due to the
exhumation of classical art and learning.

The factors which profoundly influenced the intellectual and cultural life of the 14th
centuries were the social and economic changes brought about by the crusadas. The crusaders
became acquainted with eastern civilization – their food, clothing, luxuries, etc. This contact
created a demand for the importation and processing of the commodities of the East; and that
trade grew, and commerce and manufacturing were stimulated in the free cities of Europe. The
burgher class – the merchants, bankers, and masters of guilds – who supplied these new
economic demands now rose to the importance of a Third Estate, a caste distinct from the
nobles, clergy and serfs. The needs and ideals of this new class were different from those of
the established medieval classes and pointed the way to a new manner of living.

Renaissance are to be found in the new spirit of inquiry into knowledge which was
undermining the structure of monasticism and scholasticism which had fettered thought and had
engaged in a quibbling of words, until intellectual accomplishment was at a stand-still. The
universities founded during the Middles Ages, began to stimulate a desire for intellectual
achievement. With the rise of the faculties of law and medicine to supplement the faculty of
theology, came more intellectual freedom, and more dissatisfaction with those institutions that
restricted thought and inquiry. Moslem learning, gradually influencing Europe more and more
through Spain, had prepared the way for the importation from Byzantium, the home of the Greek
culture, of the writings of the great classical authors and teachers of the new humanities.

Many material things came into European life aid intellectual advancement. Paper was
introduced form the Saracens; printing was invented to multiply the copies of classic
manuscripts – discovered and brought into Europe by the early humanists. Thus, the desire of
the few to read spread to the many by the adequacy of the supply of books; books becoming
cheaper and plentiful gave added motivation to intellectual activity.

The Renaissance was not limited to Italy where it began but the movement spread to
every land of Europe. In Spain and Portugal, the Renaissance spent itself in exploration, in
colonization, and eventually in the reform of the church. In France, the force of the movement
was felt in literature and learning. In Germany, and Holland, the movement stimulated not only
scholarship and art but also an interest in moral and social reform that eventually brought on the
Protestant reformation.

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZauZDPkUSw

Read:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/humanist-thought/

Unit 9: The Christian Concept of Education

This module will consider the early Christian conception of education – the educational
attitudes and practices of Jesus; and those of the early Christian church during the first two
centuries of its existence.

The aims of Jesus’ teaching, may be summed up in his words, “Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all those things shall be added unto you.” Jesus
thought a new and simple doctrine – the universal loving Fatherhood of God and the coming of
the Kingdom of heaven on earth based on the principle of universal brotherhood. To state
briefly, the ultimate goal of education was the Kingdom of heaven on earth.

Jesus advanced two basic principles as fundamental to the Kingdom in the hearts of
men: (1) respect for human personality and the rights of individual and (2) social efficiency in all
human relationships. He aimed at giving the individual the greatest satisfaction of life, the
“peace that passeth understanding.”

Jesus also advanced a new social gospel; taught new principles to govern human
relationships and social organization. The Golden Rule had existed before his day, but its
application; had been limited to the relationships among the peoples of one nation. Racial
hatreds, national pride, fear, suspicion, antagonism, and prejudice had limited its scope. Jesus
taught a new and great commandment, “Love thy neighbor” and in the parable of the good
Samaritan, he interpreted neighborliness in a way that no one could misunderstood.
 Jesus emphasized moral training in the loftiest meaning of the term; He was the highest
type of ethical education. The authority for conduct was the sanction of brotherly love – the
authority of great moral principles in the universe, the principle of love. “For God so loved the
world. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue in, my love. This is my
commandment “I give unto you, that ye love one another. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as ye
love thyself.” Social education and moral education were one to him.

Education based on the teaching of Jesus was democratic and universal. He himself
taught all who came to him for instruction. He swept away the distinction of caste, which had
weighed heavily in Oriental, Greek, and Roman education. He abolished all forms of slavery,
attached due importance to every individual, overthrew injustices and oppressions of society,
and thus paved way for universal and common education for every man, woman and child.

The essence of the teaching of Jesus is to be found in the few pages of Sermon of the
Mount. He taught his disciples not to retaliate for injuries received, but to forgive as their loving
Father would forgive them. He practiced what he taught. His own live was his curriculum.

The content of his teaching had to do with human conduct, yet he was not interested in
the formulation of specific habits and skills nor in memorizing rules and regulations. He
endeavored to develop in his disciples individual and social behaviors that were based on
acceptance of broad and deep general principles of human relationship.

He concentrated all his efforts on teaching the essentials. He dealt with fundamental truths. His
educational program had no courses in theology, yet he was successful in developing the most
efficient humanitarianism and religious workers.

Jesus seemed to have an intuitive grasp of the laws of learning and of the principles of teaching
that are now accepted as basic to teaching effectiveness. For examples:

1. Jesus taught truths by presenting concrete examples.

2. He made use of past experiences of those he taught by frequent references to the
various books of the Old Testament.
3. He adjusted his lessons to the common experiences of those he taught by referring to
familiar phenomenon of nature and to the institutions and practices of social life.
 4. He made effective use of the simile, the metaphor, the analogy, and the parable.
5. He used concrete everyday incidents for hi examples.
6. He used simple language to teach the most profound truths.
7. He used the phrases, idioms, and expressions current among the common people.
8. He recognized the principle of activity in his teaching.
9. He encouraged questions and used the power of suggestion to stimulate thought
processes.
10. He recognized the principle of individual differences and adjusted his teaching methods
to the needs, conditions, and capacities of those he taught.
11. He used motivation. His words and demonstrations were full of interests and attracted
and held the attention of his listeners. The motivations. He used appealed to the feeling
rather than to the intellect. Love was used as stimulus to goodness.

Educational Attitudes of the Early Christian Church

The primary aim of early Christian education was the moral regeneration of the
individual. Its ultimate goal was the moral reformation of the world and the destruction of the
corrupt society of pagan civilization. The church, however, realized that the reform of society
could come about only through the transformation of the individuals that make up society.

The Christian protest was directed especially at the looseness and sensuality prevalent
in the empire, especially in Rome. The government was corrupt; the armies were no longer
victorious. The upper class and even the proletariat of Rome had fallen into vicious customs and
habits. The common people demanded bread and circuses which political leaders and aspirants
to public office were too glad to supply.

The Roman concept of the vir bonus seemed to have been forgotten in the urge to
pleasure and self-gratification. Divorce became frequent and common to all strata of society;
infanticide was practiced.

To combat these evils, the Christians church had a new set of virtues to take the place of
vices of the pagan. Simplicity in the place of luxury, purity instead of licentiousness, temperance
instead of indulgence, humanitarianism instead of brutality, brotherly love instead of selfishness
– these were virtues required for entrance into the church; and in these, training must be given.
 Two types of training were needed to satisfy the aims: moral training and religious
training.

There is no intellectual education at first, for early Christianity was based on feeling
rather than on reason. Later, especially in the East, intellectual education was introduced to
train controversialists to meet the arguments of opponents from without the church and heretics
from within.
The only musical training was with psalmody and hymnology of church worship. There
was no recreational training, since sports and amusements of all kinds were looked upon as
sinful.

The brief course of training consisted of the simple elements of church doctrine and
ritual, and moral virtues of Christ-like living.

But during the second century a more advanced curriculum was introduced into church
education by pagan teachers who had been converted into Christianity. These teachers opened
schools primarily to give elementary training in Christian education. The Christian home was
also an efficient agency, the mother occupying an honored place and joining with the father ion
the moral and religious training of their children.

There were also the catechumenal schools. These schools were connected with the
church. They were organized for the instruction of those that desired to become members of the
church but lacked the required knowledge of church doctrine and ritual. The probationers were
called catechumens and were divided into groups, those who desired to become members of
the Church and those who were considered to be worthy of full membership. The organization
was informal, the teachers being only able members of the church. Both sexes were admitted.
They received full communion and baptism after training.

When Christianity began to make converts among grammarians, rhetoricians, and

philosophers, a new type of school was organized. At first it was private and unconnected with
church. Later catechetical schools were organized. They were so called because they used
question-and-answer method.
 Later, bishoprics were established; theological training schools for the education of the
clergy were organized in each bishopric. These were called Episcopal or cathedral schools.

Method used was prophesying or impromptu exposition or exhortation. Later, they used
catechetical method. The pupils memorized the answers to set of questions.

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNEUXlguLx0

Read:
https://www.bjupress.com/resources/christian-school/solutions/philosophy-education.php

Activities/Assessments:
Answer the following briefly:

1. Why is the Chinese nation our first consideration in the study of the history of education?
2. Who were the first leading promoters of Chinese religion, government and school system?
3. What factors contributed to the advancement of the Chinese Educational System?
4. How do you account for the unequal cultural program of the Japanese people?
5. Trace the development of their educational system from the 3rd century of our time to World
War II.
6. Give an account of educational changes of Japan since the occupation of America.
7. Compare the Chinese and Japanese cultural development.
8. Why was not Egypt given the first place in history of education?
9. What are the foremost contributions of the Egyptians in the human world civilization?
10. Why have not the Egyptian prosper as a nation and as a people like other great nations
today who are much younger?
11. What valuable lesson do you get from educational failure of Egypt?