p. 25 | A Few Thoughts on the Progress of Education

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 4, 1909

A Few Thoughts on the Progress of Education

By IDA FISCHER-CARNAHAN.

In order to view this important subject with a mind free from all prejudice, it is necessary to take a few steps backward, and glance over the pages of history, noting the rise and progress of this subject, which forms a foundation for all civilized governments. As we study the subject of education in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other countries, we can not help comparing their educational systems with those of the present time.

Babylon, which stood from about 606 to 538 B. C., traced her education and civilization to the Accad, ‘highlanders who came from the mountainous region of Elam on the east.’ Her youth were educated in the sciences and arts of the times; her system of education consisted principally in writing, composition, literature, and, during the seventh and eighth centuries, because of increasing trade with other nations some thought was given to mathematics.

Egypt boasted an educational system which not only educated the lower classes, and fitted them for the same positions as the wealthy; but her women enjoyed the same privileges, and occupied government positions.

The Greeks were the first to develop education into a science, although at first divided into two parts, classed under music and gymnastics; the former including all that was mental, the latter the physical. Under Socrates rapid strides were made in education, the highest efforts of the teachers during that time being in the direction of stimulating a craving for the unknown, and also to cause their pupils to be dissatisfied with opinions received, and at the same time to excite a curiosity over each successive mystery, which grew stronger and stronger with its revelation.

Rome knew no educational system save in oratory. According to their idea, each man was born a commander. Cicero took the position that a man could acquire enough education in one day to fit him for responsible positions in the government, but to become an orator, required a life-time.

As we come down to the first centuries after Christ, we find that ‘the literary education of the earliest generation of Christians was obtained in pagan schools, — those great imperial academies which existed even down to the fifth century, and which flourished in Europe, Asia, and Africa.’ The first attempt in providing an education for Christians was made at Alexandria, associated with Clement and Origen.

During the Middle Ages, education was found either in cloister or castle, the former making the monk, the latter the knight. Each fell short of that broad system which brings all the faculties where they can be developed for the best good of the individual and of his fellow men. All educators recognize the fact that there is something wrong in a system of education that fails to bring to the surface the best there is in an individual.

We do not forget the fact, but give due credit to the work done in keeping alive the ‘torch of learning,’ — work which was conducted in the monasteries of Monte Cassino, Fulda, and Tours; nevertheless we also recognize the fact that the discipline was severe, and they possessed a continual round of ceremonies, which implanted within the heart of the student a hatred of learning, bringing in a spirit of antagonism between teacher and pupil, and establishing a belief that no training can be ‘effectual which is not repulsive and severe.’ At the same time the education in the castles, while it taught the youth willing obedience and hardihood, simply taught the exercise of the physical powers, and left the mental powers dormant.

With the Reformation these forms of education disappeared, and in their place a system was developed which has brought light to the homes of millions. At the end of the twelfth century, universities began to spring up, and Bologna boasted of twelve thousand students of law. Salerno was set apart for the study of medicine, and Paris was thronged with students from all parts of Europe, anxious to devote themselves to a study of theology. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, all Europe seemed to awaken from the sleep of ignorance, and arose to meet the needs of the time in providing universities for ambitious youths. Time and space will not permit of our dwelling long upon the rise of education during this period; but when we are brought face to face in history with the work of such educators as Erasmus, Luther, Melanchthon, and the three theoretical and practical teachers, Sturm, Ratke, and Comenius, whose influence is still felt in educational circles, we can not fail to see the advance which education has made. The principles which these men have introduced were the forerunners of the same line of thought which Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Spencer placed before the public.

IDA FISCHER-CARNAHAN.