LECTURES EDUCATION.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1265, 8 April 1878, Page 3

LECTURES EDUCATION.

Tie first of the' lectres on Educat b J EX S X * »«** f foV:r is tche “ Great Teacher. ' and systems of educatio.” The subject of Saturdays lecture was ! Ancient schools and e ' l ' ll ®, ~ the vesent.” In his open remurks M. Howad referred to the large attendance present a the best reply possible to tbe 8^ lct “ re ® upon iis former lectures whic x made >y anonymous newspaper c ° _P dents. Holding the revolutionary tmw did hovas happy to find that th * cfc he hadnet with was so small. Ihe 3 he haefchosen for the present lecture was one not gnerally dealt with, even in training collegei where attention was confined to pri ciples ad methods of teaching and organising, but nccomparative view was taken ot the laboursof great teachers in other times and other entries. But no course of training could Ik complete without this, ibe lecturer ten referred to the benefits universally acknowledged to be derived from travelh’, and claimed for the information gaied from books a value, great indeed, bt second to that gained from travel. The coise of lectures he was about to deliver was intnded to supplv the nlace of books, which aain supplied the place of travel. Me claimsdio credit for originality, except m the maraiem which he would treat his subjects, and wold in all eases direct the attention of his fearers to the sources from which he took hi information, chiefly books m the Normal School library. The result ot the lectureswould probably be that, it would be found tat moderns were not quite as original or so elver as they sometimes thought them selves tebe. For the study of his subject at first had, he recommended Draper s Intellectual jevelopment of Europe.’' From this ;they wold learn the character of the education imarted in ancient days, what subjects were<taeht, how schools were conducted, the kind <r people the mas'ers and mistresses were, ad what the children were like. The lecturer referred to Canon Ed well “ On the distinetm between the various Schools ot, jPhilosohy,” for information on the lonian the Italic, or Pythagorean, and the Eleatic ecbools, The mutual contradictions in the teachins of these schools led to a general enirit o scepticism until a new school, tnat ot the Sopists, arose, whose favourite phrase, on which ms founded their system or morality, was “ t is might that, makes right. Hus school gave what would now be called a good scalar education. Its teachers were in accordwith the spirit of the age, not leaders in adwnce of the age, as true educators should be. Before such teachers were con demnd, it would be well to see whether some now-adays were to he found not unlike them. A reacion was inevitable and quickly sefi in. When it was found that the very foundations of society were being undermined, two great teachers rose up—Socrates, born about B.c. 469, and Plato, bom about u.c. 429 contemporaries of the Prophet Alalaclii. The lecturer gave an outline vrf the life of Socrates and of Ins eystem of teaching. The latter was a system of catechising, by which the pupil was led to teach himself, the great end and aim ot a tcboolmaster in the intellectual part ot hia work A hearty laugh was caused by the defence of Xantippe, quoted from Draper, and by a quotation from “Pickwick,” in which Sam Weller proves his father to be a philosopher The lecturer then gave an outline of the life of Plato and of his system. Both Socrates and Plato were, however, rather university professors than schoolmasters; the great aim of each was—“ Ist, to make his pupils know ; and 2nd, to make them know what they knew.” As school teachers, those present would like to iearn something about ancient schools. Mr Howard then referred to Mahaffy’s “Old Greek Life.” The ancients considered that a domestic training was the proper one for girls. In the boys schools could be detected the germ of the modern grammar school system. At Sparta the boys lived together under the care of the elaer boys and the schoolmaster, who wao a State omcial. Education was compulsory, and elderly slaves as truant officers. The discipline was very severe, and was directed to the suppression of nature. Nature, however, was not to be suppressed, and the boys became so unruly •that Plato ap-raks of them as the most insubordinate animals jn creation. The office ot schoolmaster was not, except in Sparta, considered very honorable, nor was it well paid. School hours were from sunrise to sunset, and the police saw that these hours were kept. At the same time the police did notallow parents ■or others to interfere between the master and his pupils. No foreign .language nor arithmetic was taught, but music and gymnastics were greatly favored. Leaving Gose.ce. the lecturer turned to Alexandria, where the first example ■c£ what might be termed a university W»9 found. This was the Museum, which under the fostering care f»i the Ptolemies possessed 14,000 students, a library of 700,000 volumes, botanical gardens, menageries, a medical school, anatomical rooms, an astronomical school, and wonderful mechanical appliances. What Greece did for philosophy—for logic—the basis of all studies, Alexandria did for .science—the practical application of logical processes. Modems were further indented, though in a less degree, to Eome, where the chief element in a liberal education was the etudy of the law. This continued through the middle ages in the universities on the continent of Europe, and indeed the law still continued to form an element of a liberal IB IWj) QjPfpVp $fWS B i W

some degree in France and Spain. _ From Professor Wilkins’s “Roman Antiquities” he learned that the Romans taught in their common schools, reading, writing, and arithmetic and, after the Punic wars, Greek literature. The reading was done simultaneously. The writing was ala Darnell and with moral copies. Ihe paper used had been previously written upon, and the arithmetic taught was chiefly mental It was said that the boys learned to read pretty fluently in the course of six weeks. They probably did not learn to spell as readily, for the walls of Pompeii had revealed a very defective state ot things in that particular. Corporal punishment was so frequent that Martial complained that before cock crow the air was resounding with the cries of the children at school There were two vacations. The lecturer was loudly applauded at the conclusion of his address The subject of next Saturday’s lecture will be “ Education in England prior to the Conquest”