THE ROMAN EDUCATIONAL

SYSTEM
The development of the Roman
educational system took place in two
great divisions:

• Ancient Roman Education

• Later Roman Education
ANCIENT ROMAN EDUCATION
 AIMS OF EDUCATION

• The aim of Roman education

was utilitarian, not theory but
application, not learning but
practice.
 AIMS OF EDUCATION

• Early Roman education emphasized a practical

training for military life and citizenship, acquired
through memorization of the laws of the twelve
tables and the historical tradition of Rome.
• It was not until the Romans succumbed to the
cultural influence of the Greeks that they began
to provide formal schooling.
 AIMS OF EDUCATION

• The lowest roman school was the “LUDUS” or the

school of “LITTERATOR”, where the elements of
reading, writing and arithmetic were taught.
• Aims were also moral, religious, civic and political, to
produce good citizens who knew how to exercise their
rights, fulfill their duties and obligations and acquire
virtues such as piety, obedience, manliness, courage,
bravery, industry, honesty, prudence, earnestness,
sobriety, dignity, fortitude, and gravity.
• Romans were train to be participative and wise in
politics.
 TYPES OF EDUCATION
• >> Physical and military training was imperative for
soldiers who would be conquerors in war.
• >> To make men know their rights and obligations to the
states civic training was also exercise so that they could
participate wisely in politics. The good citizen was
obedient to authority, pious, frugal and honest.
• >> Moral training was for the development of moral
virtues.
• >> Religious training was tied up to moral and civic
training. Children were trained in religious ceremonies and
usages.
• >> Vocational training for livelihood was very important to
the Romans.
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION
• The school of “Grammaticus” or grammar
school taught grammar, literature, and the art
of speaking correctly.
• The most advance education was given in
"Rhetorical Schools, which gave a brought
training in language and literature, and in
declamation as preparation for management of
public and private affairs, which required the art
of oratory.
-The rhetorical schools played an important
part in disseminating roman culture.
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION

• Children of all sexes learned

the rudiment of knowledge,
morals and religion AT HOME.
 EDUCATION for GIRLS

• In general, girls did not go to school. Girls from rich families

did receive an education, but this was done at home.
• Here they were taught how to run a good household and
how to be a good wife and in preparation for the time they
got married.
• Part of their education would have been music, sewing, and
the competent running of a kitchen.
 EDUCATION for BOYS
• The boys, on the other hand, went their fathers to
shops and farms to learn the trades of their fathers.
Military camp was the place where the boys learned
the art of warfare like the use of the battle-ax, lance,
and chariot. Forum was the place where boys
learned the science if politics and government. The
Greeks set up private schools. The pupils had to pay
some learning such as such reading, writing and
counting. These schools had little prestige among
Romans.
• .
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION
• Ballads and songs glorifying traits esteemed by the
Romans, the laws of the twelve tables, religious
ceremonies and usage, physical and military
exercises, domestic chores taught by mothers to
their daughter and vocations were some of the
contents studied by the Romans..
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION
• Two of the most influential teachers and thinkers in
roman education were CICERO and QUINTILIAN.
• Cicero’s writing provided the ideal for the education
of the middle ages. His educational ideas were put in
his orator not only as a well-rounded man of affairs
but as a man of integrity in character.
• Quintilian stressed memory and used memorizing as
main basis for motivation; he made use of plays and
games for relaxation, and to stimulate interest in
consideration with the individual differences. He
suggested competition and awards as bases for
motivation rather corporal punishment.
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION

• The youth memorized the laws of the twelve tables,

which defined private and public relationship and
human and property rights. Among the rights were;
the rights of a father over his children; the right of a
husband over his wife; the right of a master over his
slaves, and the right of a man over his property.
 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

• Direction imitation, memorization and discipline were the

methods of instructions of the early roman education.
• The boys imitated their fathers and the girls their mothers.
• Reading, writing and counting were learned by imitation from
parents or teachers.
• They were also urged to imitate the heroes whose exploits
were related to them.
• When training was carried in the home, in the father’s shop
or farm, in the forum (an open market place/ the center of
roman government), or in the military camp, the learner did
not pay any fee, but when they entered the private schools
put up by the Greeks, they had pay.
LATER ROMAN EDUCATION
 AIMS OF EDUCATION

• The chief of roman education is oratorical.

The vir bonus (morally virtuous), gifted in oratory was
the idea educated man, the educated man must have the
moral character, broad knowledge, and ability to speak.
• Civic was the ideal aim of the roman school system to train
the student for public service.
• Cicero, Tacitus, and Quintilian recognized that the ideally
educated man was an orator who used his learning for
public service.
 TYPES OF EDUCATION
• >> Speech training was the outstanding type. Public
speaking or oratory and debate were given much
attention.
• >> Civic training was coupled with speech training
with the expectation that the good orator would use
his talent for public service.
• >> The presence of many inscriptions and epitaphs on
tombs, election posters, shop identifications and
public notices indicated that there was a good literacy
educated.
• >> Vocational education was for the great mass of the
people because there was no universal education.
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION AND CONTENTS STUDIED

• The school of litterator (teacher of letters) was

in the elementary level, an outgrowth and
successor to the ludus attended by both boys
and girls. Ludus means sports or play where
the term ludi or private schools were taken.
• School of Grammaticus (teacher of grammar)
was in the second level attended by the boys
only. Greek grammar school and Latin
grammar school were the two types of school
Grammaticus. Grammar and literature were
taught in these schools.
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION AND
CONTENTS STUDIED

• School of the rhetor (teacher of the rhetoric)

was in the highest level.
• Athenaeum was in the university level
developed as the center of learning around
the library established by the emperor
Vespasian in 75 AD.
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION AND CONTENTS STUDIED

• At the age of 7-10, boys and girls entered the

litterator. They learned reading, writing and
calculation. Arithmetic was primitive because of the
cumbersome Roman nation, The Twelve Tables later
gave way to the Latin translation of Homer.
• At the age of 10 to 16 years old, grammar was the
chief study with the inclusion of literature, prose,
poetry, and language. Greek and Latin authors
reflecting the new literary attitudes were studied.
Geography, history, mythology and natural sciences
were studied superficially, only to enable students
to recognize such allusions in literature.
 AGENCIES OF EDUCATION AND CONTENTS STUDIED

• At 16, boys enter the school of rhetor. This

included debates on points of roman law and
moral principles, specially ethical and cultural
content, history of one’s country, music,
arithmetic, astronomy, geometry and
philosophy.
• Those who hurdled the school of rhetor went
to the Atheneum for a professional course. In
the university, applied science and professions
such as law, medicine, architecture, and
mechanics were in the curriculum.
 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

• Memorization, drill and writing exercises and public speaking

practices were the method of instruction for the early
Romans.
• Memorization was used in the elementary level. The pupils
sat on the floor and rested their tables on their knees.
• Class sessions were from sunrise to sunset, No class was held
during summer and holidays.
• Writing and reading were taught from dictation and writing
was on wax with stylus.
• Discipline was severe and flogging was used.
• Letters of the alphabet were memorized and pronunciation,
enunciation, and self-expression were also taught.
 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

• Drill and writing exercises was in the secondary level.

These were intensive drill on grammatical elements
such as part of speech, syntax, pronunciation, and the
like. There was so much practice in writing paragraphs,
themes, compositions, and poetic expressions.
• Public speaking was strong emphasis in all types of the
Rhetoric’s. There was strong emphasis in all types of
public speaking such as declamations, eulogies,
funeral orations, exhortations, and extemporaneous
speeches after lecture on articulation, modulation,
emphasis and the like.
 OUTSTANDING CONSTIBUTION TO EDUCATION AND CIVILIZATION

• One of the contributions of the roman to education and

civilization was their methods of organization, management
and administration. They had constructed a carefully
organized education ladder which probably became the
forerunner of many ladderized educational system of today.
• Another was the Romans organized body of civil law which
became the basis of the legal systems in many countries
including the Philippines.
• The Romans believed that there should be empathy in the
teacher-pupil relations, and that teachers should be properly
selected, even setting forth the qualities that a teacher
should have. The validity of these educational principles is
recognized in the present time.
THANK
YOU