No More Learning

Interestingly, in Plato's Meno, written about 30 years later, Socrates seriously lambasts Protagoras, noting that although Protagoras made more money in his teaching career than even a top-shelf sculptor like Pheidias, he often corrupted his students and made them worse, not better. Socrates sarcastically remarks that a shoemaker who did a shoddy job of cobbling could not stay in business for more than 30 days, whereas Protagoras got away with his pedagogical chicanery for 40 years!
ASK YOURSELF
1. Protagoras was born around 480 BCE and Socrates perhaps 10 years later, so they were roughly the same age. Why, then, do you suppose Socrates refers to Protagoras as "old and wise," and Protagoras calls Socrates a "young man"?
2. We hear much heated debate these days about the propri- ety of the "liberal arts" philosophy of education, where stu- dents are required to take courses on a wide variety of subjects, regardless of whether they have any aptitude for those subjects or even like them. However, the debate about the liberal arts curriculum is not a phenomenon of modern times; it goes back at least as far as the Greeks and Romans. Based on the information in the document, how do you think Protagoras felt about the liberal arts con- cept? And what do you think Socrates's point of view would have been?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e Althoughthesophistsoftenfoundreadyaudiences and willing students in Athens, there were other Athenians who were wary and suspicious of their teachings. We might place in the latter cat- egory the famous Athenian comic playwright Aristophanes (ca. 445-380 BCE). During his life- time, he wrote about 40 plays, 11 of which sur- vive. Many of these 11 are highly satirical; Aristophanes was never shy about stating his opin- ions on a wide range of political, social, and cul- tural issues. In his play Clouds, produced in 423, he attacked Socrates and other sophists for under- mining and confusing the youth of Athens by teaching them devious methods of argumentation,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Orthagoras the Theban: Orthagoras was well qualified to give instruc- tion in flute playing because he was considered one of the best flut- ists of his time.
Thebes: A famous and powerful city north of Athens.
Zeuxippus of Heraclea: It seems likely, although not certain, that the name "Zeuxippus" is a variant spelling of the name "Zeuxis. " If so, then the famous fifth-century BCE painter Zeuxis--who happens to be from Heraclea--is undoubtedly meant here. He was especially gifted in cre- ating paintings that were both attractive and realistic. In Cicero's textbook on rhetoric, the De Inventione, he relates an interesting anecdote about Zeuxis. It appears that the citizens of the southern Italian town of Croton, who had built a magnificent temple in honor of the goddess Juno, wished to have it decorated with top-quality paint- ings. So they hired Zeuxis, for a handsome stipend, to do the work, since he was considered the best artist of the time. Zeuxis was inter- ested in including in the project a portrait of Helen of Troy, a choice that greatly pleased the Crotoniates, since Zeuxis had the reputation of being particularly skilled in depict- ing women in his paintings. But before embarking on the portrait, Zeuxis asked his employers to assemble the five most beautiful women in the city, which they did. "He selected five, whose names many poets recorded because they were approved by the judgment of him who must have been the supreme judge of beauty. He chose five because he did not think all the qualities that he sought to
? ? ? ? ? ? ? 34
in the process making Socrates appear inept at best, dangerous at worst. Some historians believe that this unfavorable portrayal of Socrates was one of the fac- tors that ultimately led to his trial (on a charge of cor- rupting his young and impressionable students), conviction, and execution, albeit nearly a quarter of a century after the play was produced. Your task: find a copy of Aristophanes's play Clouds, research the background information, read the play, and decide for yourself if Aristophanes treated Socrates unfairly, or created an inaccurate picture of Socrates's teachings.
e As already noted, Socrates did not own buildings or other property that could be used as a meeting place for his friends and others for their discussions. So one of the public places that they sometimes utilized for their intellectual pursuits was a gymnasium, a large, usually rectangular structure generally popu- lated by athletes and soldiers engaged in physical training. (The word ultimately derives from the Greek gymnos, "naked," a reference to the practice of athletes practicing and competing unclothed. ) Two of the most famous gymnasia of the ancient Greek world were the Academy and the Lyceum. Research these two structures. What two famous philosophers were associated with them?
Socrates and Protagoras Discuss Issues in Education
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? combine in a portrayal of beauty could be found in one person, because in no single case has Nature made anything perfect and finished in every part. " [2. 1. 1].
According to the first-century CE natural scientist Pliny the Elder, Zeuxis painted a picture of grapes so realistically that birds tried to eat them. Pliny also reports that Zeuxis painted a second picture involving grapes, but this time, he added a child, carrying them. A second time, birds were deceived and attempted to eat the grapes, but on this occasion, Zeuxis was enraged, exclaiming that if he had portrayed the child more accu- rately, the birds would not have dared to come close to the grapes.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? SOPHISTS AND SOPHISTRY
In its modern sense, "sophistry" carries some unpleasant baggage; Random House Webster's College Dictionary, for example, defines the word thus: "a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning. " And so, practitioners of sophistry--sophists--might be viewed in a similarly unfavorable light, as they sometimes were in ancient Greece.
The derivation of the word certainly does not conjure up images of trickiness or deception; it ultimately comes from the Greek adjective sophos, "wise," and hence, a sophist is a "wise person. " But over the course of years, different nuances of meaning began to be associated with the word sophist, so that by the fifth century BCE, it was generally applied to "wise men" who gave instruction in specific areas of learning, i. e. , a professional class of teachers. Just as one could find good and bad workers in any occupation or profession, so it was with the sophists; unfortunately, the unethical sophists saddled the entire profession with an unsavory reputation. Part of the reason for this unfavorable standing had to do with money. As already mentioned, Protagoras was the first paid sophist; others followed suit. In the minds of some Athenians, the accepting of fees seemed somehow inap- propriate, as if knowledge and wisdom were commodities that could be bought and sold. Socrates was accused of taking payments for his teaching, a charge he vehemently denied at his famous trial in 399 BCE.
Also contributing to the damage was the nature of the profession itself, one that "tended to produce a cer- tain attitude of mind, which placed emphasis on material success and on the ability to argue for any point of view, irrespective of its truth. " [Oxford Classical Dictionary. ]
? ? 35
Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
? ? ? ? COLLECTING TEACHING FEES
Diogenes Laertius (third century CE) wrote accounts of the lives and philosophical teachings of numerous Greek thinkers, including (among very many others) Protagoras. He relates an amusing story about Protagoras's attempt to collect a fee from one of his students, a certain Euathlus. This Euathlus resisted paying up, claiming that since he had not yet won a case, he owed no money to his teacher. Protagoras's reply: "[I]f I win this case against you I must have the fee, for winning it. If you win, I must have it, because you win it. "
? ? 36
Further Information
Cornford, Francis M. Before and After Socrates. Cambridge, 1932.
Field, G. C. Plato and His Contemporaries. London, 1930.
Jarrett, James L. The Educational Theories of the Sophists. New York, 1969. Ross, W. D. Plato's Theory of Ideas. Oxford, 1951.
Shorey, Paul. What Plato Said. Chicago, 1937.
Website
General Bibliography on Plato. http://faculty. tcc. edu/JCarr/PlatoBib. htm
Bibliography for Document
Hubbell, H. M. (tr. ). Cicero: De Inventione; De Optimo Genere Oratorum; Topica. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London, 1949.
Lamb, W. R. M. (tr. ). Plato: Laches; Protagoras; Meno; Euthydemus. Volume II. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London, 1924.
8. FUNDING FOR ROMAN SCHOOLS
INTRODUCTION
Modern American public schools are built, staffed, and funded according to long-established laws and traditions, but in ancient Roman times, the system was much less standardized. Smaller communities, especially those located far from Rome, may have had no organized system of education at all. Such was the case with the town of Comum, tucked far away from Rome, in Italy's northern expanses.
Enter Pliny the Younger (62-114 CE), who happened to be a native of Comum. A gen- erous philanthropist, Pliny offered to donate a substantial sum of money to the town for organizing a school. Pliny had a reputation for such benefactions: He donated 500,000 sesterces for the support and maintenance of the youth of Comum; he gave 300,000 sesterces for the furnishing and maintenance of public baths in Comum; he presented his childhood nurse with a farm worth 100,000 sesterces; at a time when a friend of his did not have enough money to cover the cost of his daughter's wedding, Pliny came to the rescue with a gift of 50,000 sesterces. Many of Pliny's financial gifts were earmarked for children or young people; in this regard, he was perhaps one of the first prominent Romans to participate in an emergent early imperial social custom called the alimenta: a philanthropic system in which wealthy benefactors provided financial support for needy children.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. Pliny himself had probably been the beneficiary of the services of a private tutor, and so he is particularly concerned that the residents of Comum hire "teachers of repute" to staff the proposed school.
2. The document is in the form of a letter addressed to his friend Cornelius Tacitus, a highly regarded Roman historian, many of whose works still survive today. Two of Pliny's most famous letters (of the hundreds still extant) describe in detail the erup- tion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE; Pliny was an eyewitness to that horrific event, and Tacitus had requested some information about it so that he could include an account of the eruption in a history of Rome he was writing.
3. It is thought that the document was written around 104 CE.
? ? ? ? 37
Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
? Document: Pliny the Younger Helps to Fund a School
I was visiting my native town [Comum] a short time ago when the young son of a fellow citizen came to pay his respects to me. "Do you go to school? " I asked. "Yes," he replied. "Where? " "In Mediolanum. " "Why not here? " To this, the boy's father (who had brought him and was standing by) replied: "Because we have no teachers here. " "Why not? Surely it is a matter of great importance to you fathers (and luckily there were several fathers listening) that your children should study here on the spot. Where can they live more happily than in their native place? Where can they be brought up more strictly than under their parents' eye or with less expense than at home? If you put your money together, what would it cost you to engage teachers? And you could add to their salaries what you now spend on lodgings, traveling expenses, and all the things which cost money away from home--and everything is bought abroad these days. Now, as I have not yet any children of my own, I am prepared to contribute a third of whatever sum you decide to collect, as a present for our town such as I might give to a daughter or my mother. I would promise the whole amount were I not afraid that some- day my gift might be abused for someone's selfish pur- poses, as I see happen in many places where teachers' salaries are paid from public funds. There is only one remedy to meet this evil: if the appointment of teachers is left entirely to the parents, and they are conscientious about making a wise choice through their obligation to contribute to the cost. People who may be careless about another person's money are sure to be careful about their own. So you should meet and come to some agreement; be encouraged by my generosity, for I want my own contribution to be as large as possible. You can do noth- ing better for your children, nothing more welcome for our town. The children born here should be brought up on their native soil, so that from their earliest years they may learn to love it and choose to stay at home. I hope that you will introduce teachers of repute, so that
nearby towns will seek education here, and, instead of sending your children elsewhere as you do today, you will soon see other children flocking here to you. " [Tr. Betty Radice. Pliny: Letters and Panegyricus. (4. 13. ) Volume I. LCL, 1969. Page numbers: 279, 281. ]
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Comum: Located in northern Italy, Comum was the hometown of Pliny and also of his uncle, the famous natural scientist Pliny the Elder.
If you put your money together: J. H. Westcott (v.
infra) writes about this passage: "Rhetoricians were first paid by the state under [the emperor] Vespasian [reigned 69- 79 CE]. Here is a suggestion that Comum should follow the exam- ple of Rome. " Quintilian (see the next document) taught rhetoric in Rome in his own school, which opened sometime during Vespasian's reign.
Mediolanum: The modern Milan, a city in northern Italy, kind of a "hub" city, where many roads interconnected. It was about 30 miles from Comum.
teachers: Pliny uses the word praecep- tores, here translated as "teachers. " More specifically, the word may refer to rhetoric professors, at least according to one commentator (J. H. Westcott, editor and annota- tor of Selected Letters of Pliny).
young son: Pliny's word is praetextatus, meaning a boy still wearing the toga praetexta, and signifying that he had not yet reached the age of manhood, around 17.
? ? ? 38
Funding for Roman Schools
? ? ? ? TEACHERS AND STUDENTS BACK IN THE DAY
Juvenal's Satire VII contains some biting statements about the sad state of education in his time (first/second century CE). He notes, for example, the stories told about the school days of the mighty Greek warrior Achilles, who was instructed by the centaur Chiron. Achilles did not often back down, but he showed reverence and respect to his schoolmaster; metuens virgae are Juvenal's words: Achilles was "fearful of the rod" (or, as the old traditional American song put it: "reading and writing and 'rithmetic / taught to the tune of a hickory stick"). But now, in Juvenal's time, things have changed! Students make fun of their teachers and sometimes even physically assault them with impunity.
In the same satire, Juvenal also decries the piteously poor salaries paid to teachers and how parents expect teachers always and everywhere to be ready at a moment's notice to spew elaborate and articulate answers to the most arcane questions (name Anchises's nurse; who was Anchemolus's stepmother, and what was her hometown? ; how old was Acestes at his death? ; when the Trojans set sail from Sicily, how many gallons of wine did Acestes give to them? ). And how difficult it can be sometimes for a teacher to maintain order in a classroom--"no easy matter to watch the hands and sparkling eyes of so many youngsters! " [Juvenal. Satires 7. 240-241; tr. Ramsay. ]
Finally, he notes that a charioteer can earn more money by winning a single race than a teacher receives in an entire year.
? ? ? AFTERMATH
Unfortunately, we have no information about whether Pliny's initiative, and his financial backing, resulted in a permanently endowed and viable school in Comum. It is probably rea- sonable to assume that the school remained at least as long as Pliny was still around to help oversee it, but he died less than 10 years after it was founded.
ASK YOURSELF
1. Pliny seems to suggest that schools--or at least the one proposed for Comum-- should be funded by voluntary contributions from parents. Do you think that this funding system would work? In the United States, where does the money come from for building and maintaining public schools?
2. What do you suppose Pliny means when he writes that he would have provided the entire amount of money needed to fund the school except that he feared his gift "might be abused for someone's selfish purposes"? Although he does not identify the "someone," nor the "selfish purposes," what kinds of inappropriate behavior might have been worrying him?
3. Are there any components of Pliny's proposal that seem impractical?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e Read and research Juvenal's seventh Satire, especially the sections near the end where he describes the low pay, dangers, and humiliations that teachers frequently have to deal with or confront. How close to the truth do you think Juvenal's descriptions are? (Remember: he was a satirist! ) Do you
? ? ? ? ? 39
Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
40
think that the same kinds of problems and frustrations are present today for public schoolteachers? The comment at the end, about a charioteer's salary, seems to strike a chord. Would you say that a similar disparity exists today between a teacher's salary and that paid to a professional athlete?
e Consider Pliny's overall proposal for the school at Comum. What do you suppose was his motivation for wanting to do this? There is no doubt that Pliny was the epitome of a civic-minded Roman gentleman, but still . . . We do have a long inscription (CIL 5. 5262), which was posted in a promi- nent place in Comum and listed many of his benefactions, including the amounts of money he donated for each.
Further Information
Stout, S. E. Scribe and Critic at Work in Pliny's Letters. Bloomington, IN, 1954. Websites
A Select Bibliography to Pliny's Letters. http://classics. uc. edu/~johnson/pliny/plinybib. html The Younger Pliny. http://encyclopedia. jrank. org/PIG_POL/PLINY_THE_
YOUNGER. html
Bibliography for Document
Radice, Betty (tr. ). Pliny: Letters and Panegyricus. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London, 1969. Ramsay, G. G. (tr. ). Juvenal and Persius. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London, 1918. Westcott, J. H. Selected Letters of Pliny. Norman, OK, new edition 1965.
9. SPARE THE ROD, AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL PRECEPTS OF QUINTILIAN
INTRODUCTION
The ancient Romans (like the Greeks) never developed a formal educational "system," i. e. , elementary and secondary public schools, and colleges and universities. Sometimes, children were homeschooled, either by their parents or by an educated slave or other private tutor. But schools also abounded, and three levels of education were established and accepted. (Quintilian, the source of the third document in this chapter, strongly preferred the latter; he felt that large numbers of students are inevitably attracted to the best teachers, whereas one-on-one instruction, or homeschooling, often resulted in an inferior education because of unqualified teachers. He also felt that learning was enhanced by the dynamic resulting from interaction with others, but solitary study bred boredom. )
In the first level of education, young students (around the age of six or seven) were taught the "three R's" (reading, writing, arithmetic) by the equivalent of today's elementary school teacher, called by the Romans a litterator. Next up was the grammaticus, a teacher who specialized in giving instruction in the analysis and recitation of literary texts. At the age of perhaps 14, the student was ready to progress to the third level, roughly corresponding to higher education today, where rhetoric, logic, argumentation, and public speaking were emphasized.
It is difficult to know how students were evaluated, because there were, to our knowl- edge, no examinations, no report cards, no diplomas, nor any degrees awarded, at any of the stages of the educational system.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. One of our best sources of information about Roman attitudes toward education was the orator and educational philosopher Quintilian (full Roman name Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, ca. 35 CE-ca. 95). Quintilian wrote a lengthy treatise on the method and content of a course of training for a Roman orator: The Institutes of Oratory. Although his book focuses on oratorical training, many of the educational principles he enunciates, particularly in the first two chapters, have a far wider application.
2. Quintilian wrote his book at the request of friends who respected his intelligence, his integrity, his knowledge of the subject, and his experience; he had been
? ? ? ? 41
Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
instructing young orators for some 20 years. At first, he was reluctant to undertake the project, partially because there were already many oratorical books available and partially because he felt unequal to the task. But eventually he forged ahead, because he felt obligated to his friends to do so and also because he believed he could approach the topic from a perspective that was a bit different from the one reflected in the other books on oratory and oratorical training.
3. Roman education was generally geared to boys only, although girls also apparently could receive at least some formal training. When referring to a young student, Quintilian invariably uses the Latin word puer, usually translated as "boy," although sometimes the word can have a gender-neutral meaning, especially in the plural form: "children. "
4. Quintilian was writing in the first century CE, when the Roman educational system had developed some well-established procedures, expectations, and practices after centuries of refinements. Still, there were those who longed for the "good old days," and who criticized modern educational trends and philosophies. One of these critics was Quintilian's contemporary, the historian Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 55-117 CE). In his Dialogue on Oratory, he writes: "Everybody is aware that it is not for lack of votaries that eloquence and the other arts as well have fallen from their former high estate, but because of the laziness of our young men, the carelessness of parents, the ignorance of teachers, and the decay of the old-fashioned virtue. " (Tacitus, A Dialogue on Oratory 28; tr. Peterson). In the same section, Tacitus lashes out at young people who have a "passion for play actors, and the mania for gladiatorial shows and horse racing," and whose unworthy interests are validated and fueled by like-minded teachers, who waste valuable class time discussing such trivialities with their students.
Document: Quintilian's Educational Philosophies
All our students will require some relaxation, not merely because there is nothing in this world that can stand con- tinued strain, and even unthinking and inanimate objects are unable to maintain their strength, unless given intervals of rest, but because study depends on the good will of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion. Consequently, if restored and refreshed by a holiday, they will bring greater energy to their learning and approach their work with greater spirit of a kind that will not submit to be driven. I approve of play in the young; it is a sign of a lively disposition. Nor will you ever lead me to believe that a child who is gloomy and in a continual state of depression is ever likely to show alertness of mind in his work, lacking as he does the impulse most natural to children of his age . . . I disapprove of flogging, although it is the regular cus- tom and meets with the acquiescence of Chrysippus, because in the first place it is a disgraceful form of
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chrysippus: Chrysippus was a noted third-century BCE Stoic philoso- pher. Although a prolific writer-- he reportedly strove to write 500 lines of text per day--few of his works survive, and his attitude about corporal punishment in schools must be inferred from the words of Quintilian. Chrysippus was not shy about touting his own intellect; one day, he was approached by a man who was looking for a tutor for his son. The man asked Chrysippus whom he would recommend. The
? ? ? 42
punishment and fit only for slaves, and is in any case an insult, as you will realize if you imagine its infliction at a later age. Secondly, if a child is so insensible to instruc- tion that reproof is useless, he will, like the worst type of slave, merely become hardened to blows. Finally, there will be absolutely no need of such punishment if the master is a thorough disciplinarian. As it is, we try to make amends for the negligence of the boy's paedago- gus, not by forcing him to do what is right, but by punishing him for not doing what is right. And though you may compel a child with blows, what are you to do with him when he is a young man no longer amenable to such threats, and confronted with tasks of far greater difficulty? Moreover, when children are beaten, pain or fear frequently have results of which it is not pleasant to speak, and which are likely subsequently to be a source of shame, a shame which unnerves and depresses the mind and leads the child to shun and loathe the light . . . I will content myself with saying that children are helpless and easily victimized, and that therefore no one should be given unlimited power over them . . . As soon as the boy has learned to read and write without difficulty, it is the turn for the teacher of literature [i. e. , the grammaticus] . . . [T]hose who criticize the art of teaching literature as trivial and lacking in substance put themselves out of court . . . The study of literature is a necessity for boys and the delight of old age, the sweet companion of our privacy and the sole branch of study which has more solid substance than display. [Tr. H. E. Butler. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian (1. 3-4. ) Volume I. LCL, 1920. Page numbers: 57, 59, 61, 63, 65. ]
AFTERMATH
Several works of literature are attributed to Quintilian; however, the only one that can definitely be ascribed to him is the Institutes of Oratory, which he wrote sometime in the decade of the '90s CE, and after he retired from his long career as a lawyer and educator. His book had a favorable impact on his students and others, and he is referenced in works by the poets Martial and Juvenal and the epistler Pliny the Younger.
ASK YOURSELF
1. What do you think of the arguments put forward by Quintilian in opposition to the practice of corporal punish- ment in schools? What might be some counterarguments?
Spare the Rod, and Other Educational Precepts of Quintilian
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? answer: "Me! For if I thought any philosopher excelled me, I would myself become his student. "
I disapprove of flogging: Some Roman teachers would not agree with this assertion. Consider, for example, the case of one Lucius Orbilius Pupillus, a grammaticus and one of the teachers of the poet Horace. In one of his Epistles, Horace uses the epithet plagosus ("full of blows") to describe his old teacher Orbilius; apparently, Orbilius did not shrink from resorting to physical punishment if Horace, although only a small boy at the time, faltered in his reci- tations.