Twentieth century Negro literature : $b or, A cyclopedia of thought on the vital topics relating to the American Negro
History
Twentieth century Negro literature : $b or, A cyclopedia of thought on the vital topics relating to the American Negro
African Americans -- History
Greece had two distinct ideas of government. The Dorian, as
exemplified by the laws of Sparta, whose fundamental principle was
that the individual existed for the state and must obey the behests of
the state. The Ionian, as we find it in the constitution of Athens,
whose basic principle was that the state existed for the individual
and the individual was a freeman. The educational system of Sparta was
entirely military, in keeping with the aim and purpose of the state.
The boys at the tender age of seven years were taken from their homes
and placed in state schools to be taught the art of war, and how to
endure all of its hardships and privations. The educational system at
Athens reflected the aim and purpose of the Athenian State; it was
humanistic. The intellectual, ethical, and physical powers of the
child were developed. In that little peninsula of Southern Europe
there were two distinct civilizations having very little in common and
always antagonistic. Sparta developed human machines, men of great
physical force, but contributed nothing to the civilization of the
world, nothing for the betterment of mankind. Liberty, patriotism,
love of home and kindred, are the characteristics of the Athenian
civilization. The contributions of Athens for the civilization of the
world and the elevation of mankind are beyond human conception. The
mind of man cannot conceive of the innumerable blessings that have
flowed from Athenian civilization, the great reservoir of thought and
perfected art. The profoundest thoughts of philosophy, the most
electrifying words of statesmen and orators; the grand, sublime and
patriotic strains of the muses, the illimitable beauty and symmetry of
her art have been bequeathed to the world by Athens, "THE EYE OF
GREECE." But above and beyond these is the principle of personal
liberty and popular government that has come down to us from the
Athenian Commonwealth. The aim and purpose of the Athenian Republic in
its educational system was to train the children to become useful
citizens, capable of aiding in the management of the state. Aristotle
says: "Education should be regulated by the state for the ends of the
state; * * * as the end purposed to the State, as the whole, is one,
it is clear that the education of all the citizens must be one and
the same and the superintendence of it a public affair rather than in
private hands."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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