The History of Education: Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western CivilizationCubberley, Ellwood Patterson
History
The History of Education: Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization
Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson
Education -- History
THE GYMNASIAL TRAINING, SIXTEEN TO EIGHTEEN. Up to this point the
education provided was a private and a family affair. In the home and in
the school the boy had now been trained to be a gentleman, to revere the
gods, to be moral and upright according to Greek standards, and in
addition he had been given that training in reading, writing, music, and
athletic exercises that the State required parents to furnish. It is
certain that many boys, whose parents could ill afford further expense for
schooling, were allowed to quit the schools at from thirteen to fifteen.
Those who expected to become full citizens, however, and to be a part of
the government and hold office, were required to continue until twenty
years of age. Two years more were spent in schooling, largely athletic,
and two years additional in military service. Of this additional training,
if his parents chose and could afford it, the State now took control.
[Illustration: FIG. II. GROUND-PLAN OF THE GYMNASIUM AT EPHESOS, IN ASIA
MINOR
_Explanation:_ A, B, C, pillared corridors, or portico; D, an open space,
possibly a palaestra, evidently intended to supply the peristylium; E, a
long, narrow hall used for games of ball; F, a large hall with seats; G,
in which was suspended a sack filled with chaff for the use of boxers; H,
where the young men sprinkled themselves with dust; I, the cold bath; K,
where the wrestling-master anointed the bodies of the contestants; L, the
cooling-off room; M, the furnace-room; N, the vapor bath; 0, the dry-
sweating apartment; P, the hot bath; Q, Q', rooms for games, for the
keepers, or for other uses; R, R', covered stadia, for use in bad weather;
S, S, S, S, S, rows of seats, looking upon T, the uncovered _stadium_; U,
groves, with seats and walks among the trees; V, V', recessed seats for
the use of philosophers, rhetoricians, and others.]
For the years from sixteen to eighteen the boy attended a state
_gymnasium_, of which two were erected outside of Athens by the State, in
groves of trees, in 590 B.C. Others were erected later in other parts of
Greece. Figure 11 shows the ground plan of one of these _gymnasia_, and a
study of the explanation of the plan will reveal the nature of these
establishments. The boy now had for teachers a number of gymnasts of
ability. The old exercises of the _palaestra_ were continued, but running,
wrestling, and boxing were much emphasized. The youth learned to run in
armor, while wrestling and boxing became more severe. He also learned to
ride a horse, to drive a chariot, to sing and dance in the public
choruses, and to participate in the public state and religious
processions.
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