The Story of Classical Education - Part 1

Tracing its threads through England (and elsewhere)

Mar 17, 2023

The Grammar school of Old

The school of the grammaticus, where literature is studied, and the school of rhetoric, where the art of persuasion is practised are together known as classical education. This form of education is alleged to have begun in England in AD 78. It was in this year that Tacitus records how his father in law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD 40 - 93), the Roman Governor of Britain roundly defeated its various peoples. And having done so, sought to fasten them to the Roman way of life through the teaching of Latin and by the provision of classical education to the sons of local chieftains. With the promise of paved roads and fresh water flowing into baths through aqueducts, it proved to be effective and before long those who had at first rejected Latin, subsequently coveted its eloquence. Demonstrating that since ancient times, men have pursued the assimilation of peoples through the education of their posterity as can still be observed today.

The ancient grammaticus or the grammar school of old served mainly to expound ancient poets. The Greek grammar school began with Homer, followed by dramatists like Menander. And the Roman grammar school focused on Virgil, followed by Terence. Prose writers like Sallust were generally not read. The teaching of how to speak persuasively and powerfully came in the school of rhetoric, where pupils were taught mastery in the composition of words.

Exemplars of those trained in this tradition are the likes of Ambrose of Milan (AD 339 - 397) and his son in the faith, Aurelius Augustinus of Hippo (AD 354 - 430), both of which received a classical education excelling at rhetoric - demonstrable by accounts of their preaching and writings.

The Grammar school of the Middle Ages

Botheius (AD 480 - 524) shaped the basic methods of teaching using the trivium and quadrivium that would be applied in the Medieval church but which have their origins in pagan Rome and Greece.

And between the 7th and 14th century, the pagan works of Greece and Rome were altogether scorned and barely used. Such was the influence of church leaders at the time, who slimmed down their inheritance of the trivium and the quadrivium drastically, taking only what they felt to be of use from the pagan world, and no more. The acquisition and usage of Greek and Hebrew diminished greatly as did access to the texts bearing these languages. As this happened Latin rose to the fore and became the predominant language, but the breadth of Latin eloquence seen in the likes of Cicero and the pagan poets were seldom read.

But what is the trivium and the quadrivium? The trivium includes, grammar, logic and rhetoric. The quadrivium includes music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. The subjects of the quadrivium can be understood in the context of numbers - respectively, they are:

number in time - for music
number in abstract - for arithmetic
number in space - for geometry
number in space and time - for astronomy.

During this time, students were often afforded their privilege of tutelage by virtue of their precocity and or their rank in society. Otherwise, those who lacked the gift of the highly autodidactic, did not really have a chance unless there was sufficient funding behind their training.

The New Learning of the Renaissance and The Reformation

From around the second half of the 14th century, an interest in the ancient original texts was reinvigorated. At this time, the first form of humanism was born; a Humanist was said to be one who pursued “humane studies”, these comprised subjects previously mentioned and more - grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and philosophy. These subjects are what we understand as being a part of the humanities today and they were studied for the refinement of oneself, Humanists believed that you would become a more complete human. It could be said that all Christian Humanists were Humanists, but not all Humanists were Christian Humanists. While Humanists and Christian Humanists alike took great interest in pagan works, the Christian Humanists went further and reached for the original Greek and and later the Hebrew texts of the bible. Desiderius Erasmus (1466 - 1536) who was dubbed “the schoolmaster of Europe” was a Christian Humanist, the Dutchman is of note for producing a scholarly edition of the Greek New Testament with Latin and his own notes, and he encouraged the translation of the New Testament into vernacular. He was educated under the Brethren of the Common Life, an ascetic community, his education there was classical, studying the humanities as well as theology.

Erasmus’ epistolary adversary Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) used Erasmus’ Greek editions of the New Testament to translate a German New Testament for the common folk of Saxony. The self described “tough Saxon” and son of peasantry, pursued a career as a lawyer, receiving a classical education - the typical trivium, followed by the quadrivium. But soon into his studies of law, his drive would be redirected to religion after the death of a close friend and his survival of a storm. Before long, Luther would fall under the gathering momentum tersely described as ad fontes meaning “back to the sources” and it was his reading of the New Testament in Greek and the help of his friend Philip Melancthon (1497 - 1560) that illuminated his understanding of justification by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, the primary fulcrum around which Protestantism is focused .

Last year, 2022, marked the 430th anniversary of one John Amos Comenius (1592 - 1670), a Czech churchman, who is by many accounts considered the father of modern education and an early proponent of universal education. His methods for educating the young were key to drawing the potential out of those who are less academically autodidactic - being the majority of us. In this regard, his teaching emphasised the intuitive, such as teaching things familiar to the child, things which surrounded the child, the natural world and the daily occurrences of life, making learning a pleasure as opposed to a chore, and learning languages using the common tongue, since up until his innovations, foreign languages like Greek or Hebrew would most likely be learnt through Latin as opposed to via the native tongue. And his approaches to education were not systematically applied but perhaps were applied by teachers according to their unique teaching methods.

In the following parts of this series on classical education I shall explore the institutions, individuals, works and methods of classical education with a primary focus on England, making my way through the centuries from the 16th century to the 21st century.

You may be wondering why I bother looking into this stuff. I am simply trying to get a thorough view of the form of education I am convinced is the best, in order to be able to pick its choice portions for the education of my children. So I invite you to join me as I partake in this journey. I hope that there may be some use for you.

Key Data 1:

Key Educators: Botheius, Comenius

Methods of interest: Trivium, Quadrivium

Texts: Hebrew Old Testament, Greek New Testament, Terence, Virgil, Homer, Meander