Where Were the First Shools?

A school is a place where people, usually children, are brought together to be taught. You'll notice that there are two important points in this definition: There is a definite place, and more that one child is taught at a time.

Our modern schools are derived from the ancient Greek and Roman schools. But even in Greece, there was a period where there were only professional teachers to whom boys were brought as single pupils, and there was no teaching in classes.

Then a little later, the Grecian orators and philosophers who had been teaching the single pupils brought to them, or who traveled about to do their teaching, settled down in fixed places and began to establish something more like schools. Plato, the great Greek philosopher, was the first to give a regular educational course extending over three or four years in a fixed place, which was called "the Academy."

This "school was held in the gymnasium, which was originally a parade or practice ground for the militia. Later on, Aristotle set up a school of his own in the Lyceum, which was another public gymnasium. Now, here is a curious thing: The German term for a school is gymnasium, the French term is lycee, and the Scotch term is "academy"-all coming from Plato's and Aristotle's institutions!

Neither of these two "schools," however, were like our modern schools. They were chiefly places for discussions and sometimes courses of lectures. About the year 250, the Greeks realized that grammar was a subject that had to be taught to al young people, and "the grammar school" was established. And this is how we got our name "grammar school" for our secondary schools.

Later on, the Romans, who were influenced by the Greeks, set up schools that were very much like our modern schools. And believe it or not, it was just as miserable to go to a Roman school as it is to any school you know! Boys had to get up early, learn a great deal of grammar, a foreign language, and above all, behave properly. If they didn't they were flogged!