Instruction follows in order to render habits rational and permanent The Age of Pericles, or the flowering of the Greek genius schools devoted their efforts to the shaping of conduct. In these schools the boy learned to run races, to jump, to wrestle, to excel in physical exercise and contests, to play the harp, to recite poetry to the accompaniment of the harp, to read and declaim, to dance. It is all "a doing," a formation of habits, of courtesy, of graceful bearing, of temperance in thought and action, in control of emotions and passions, and in giving expression in action to the ideas of harmonious, beautiful and virtuous conduct in life. Only afterward does it become a learning. When the habit is once formed by exercise, training must be followed by instruction in order to make the habit permanent by making it rational. Instruction then aims to replace arbitrary authority with reason as the basis of virtuous conduct. Instruction thus produces this harmony between the inner life and the outward action. (The relation between instruction and activity or expression, as developed in modern education, is thus reversed. The Greeks held to the scriptural principle that if one does the deed, the knowledge of doctrine will follow. NEW GREEK EDUCATION: TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. – Character of the Period. The Old Greek education resulted during the fifth century B.C., in a brilliant period of personal achievement and national progress which has never been surpassed in history. The culmination of this period was the Age of Pericles. During and immediately preceding this period the highest products of Greek civilization were attained. In politics such men as Themistocles and Pericles controlled her destinies; in art the work of Phidias and Myron and the construction of the Parthenon are evidences of their taste and their achievement. Herodotus and Thucydides laid the foundation of the science or art of historical writing. The tragic drama reached its perfection in the work of Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; and comedy, in the plays of Aristophanes. In every aspect of human activity and human thought there was a similar creative effort and an achievement that is beyond comparison with that of preceding historic periods. But this period of frui Greater demands upor ual and the individ greater op portunities for him crease of tion was also one of transition and of origins. While the old education laid the foundation for these achievements, it was insufficient to meet the demands of the times and altogether inadequate for future needs. The life of this period made greater demands upon the individual and offered greater opportunities for personal achievement, consequently it required an education suited to the period, one wherein the chief emphasis was laid upon individual development rather than upon service to the city state, and wherein the individual was not merged in the citizen. The answer to this demand was the New Greek Education. 2 Transitional Forces. - As a result of the Persian war, Athen- Economic --ian life was merged into Greek life as a whole, economic relations changes; in and commercial activities were extended, industrial interests wealth were developed, and a hitherto unknown toleration of foreign teachers grew up. Toleration of new ideas led to criticism of old ones and finally to modification or rejection of much that had been characteristic in previous periods. Even before this flourishing industrial and commercial period was reached, economic and social causes had been at work in producing revolutionary political changes. The old aristocratic constitution Political was replaced (509 B.C.) by the democratic one of Clisthenes. All changes; free inhabitants of Attica were admitted to citizenship. All democracy these now served in the popular law courts or in the assembly. Many officers were chosen by lot as in the case of the modern jury. To the popular assembly was given the power to ostracize, or banish by secret ballot, any citizen considered dangerous to the public welfare. Under this system of free government the political power, the material prosperity, and the culture of the citizens increased with rapid strides. growth of The highest literary product of the old period was the tragedy: Literary de during the latter part of the fifth century the most characteristic velopment; the comedy literary form was the comedy. The problem underlying all succeeds tragedy was the conflict of duty and interest; its theme was always ethical; its occasion was that of religious worship. The theme of comedy was social and political; its characters the tragedy Develop ment of introspective psychology and of philosophy Mythology replaced by moral and religious ideas rationalistic, Greater free vidual de manded were drawn from contemporary life; its purpose was to entertain. As a satire on the pretensions, shams, follies and extravagances of every phase of life, its very nature indicates that in real life self-interest had won the victory over duty. Akin to the change in literature was that in philosophy. The early philosophy of the Greeks had sought for some explanation of the physical universe, its constituent elements and its relation to man; to the new teachers, philosophers, sophists and students such knowledge seemed impossible. The new thought turned its attention inward, and in the activities and the nature of the mind sought to determine the nature of reality. A similar change occurred in religion and morals. The old mythology was rejected, - or preserved for the unintelligent masses alone. In its place was substituted a naturalistic or rationalistic explanation of natural phenomena. In place of the old morality, founded on the institutions of the city state, of the family, and of the worship of the household gods, was substituted a new morality based upon self-interest or upon rational enlightenment. Extreme skepticism and unreasoned conservatism came into conflict. There could be no question as to where the ultimate victory would lie. Skepticism in belief led to freedom, even license, in conduct. The orderliness, the dignity, the gravity, the devotion to public need, of the old Greek life, was replaced by a greater frivolity, a disposition to place personal gratification above public service and a general disposition to allow the individual to determine his own ends in life and to select the means for their attainment. The Demands upon Education made by these social changes, dom for indi- political, economic, ethical, literary and the like, were twofold. There was first a demand for greater freedom for the individual in thought and action to correspond with this growth of freedom in the political sphere. Second, there was a demand for a training or an education that would enable the individual to take advantage of the unprecedented opportuni 1 ties for personal aggrandizement and achievement. There was now demanded an ability to succeed in a democratic society much like our own, and to control the votes and command the approval of an intelligent populace where the functions of print'ng press, telegraph, railroad and all modern means of com- Also a better munication were performed through public speech and private training to meet the new discourse, and where the legal, ecclesiastical and other pro- opportunifessional classes of teachers did not exist. No means, how- ties ever, existed in Athenian society, as organized under the old régime, for giving to the individual such training as would provide for personal achievement in place of civic service. Such instrumentalities now appeared in the form of a new class of teachers, the sophists. Double sig nificance of term So native teachers The Sophists were the new class of teachers that arose in answer to these new demands. Like many terms, such as pedagogue and politician, the term "sophist " is used in both a generic phists and a specific sense. In the broader generic sense the sophists were Greek teachers, not usually native Athenians, who saw the defects in the existing organization of education at Athens and offered to the youth of the city the training so much in demand as a preparation for a career of personal aggrandizement in the political and social life of the times. They were students of affairs who through wide travel had picked up the current learn- Sophists not ing concerning natural forces and phenomena, political life, social institutions and popular questions of the day. Many of them gave merely a formal training that often consisted in furnishing their pupils with set speeches upon given topics to be repeated upon definite occasions, such as (trials before the Formal charcourts, or with smart sayings and fragmentary information to be used whenever chance opportunity offered. Many gave a more thorough course in the study of questions of the day and in the rudimentary, natural and historical sciences of the times as well as a training in dialectic power through discussion and in rhetorical power through public speech. They themselves taught through formal discourse or lecture. Two characteristics acter of thei teaching Pretense of teaching all subjects; teaching for pay rendered them especially disliked by the thinking Greeks, espe cially those of a conservative character; the one was the profession of their ability, as indicated by their title, wise men, to give information on any subject; the other was their demand for remuneration for their services. With the charlatans among their number - and they were probably not a few - this took the form of offering to impart to any one any subject or any ability, if the remuneration was sufficient. Since power in argumentation constituted the great desideratum, it was the boast of many of them that they could give one the ability to argue either side of any question with equal facility. These two characteristics ran counter to some of the fundamental and most worthy traits of old Greek life. The former violated their principle of harmony and reverence and bordered on the insolent. The latter was contradictory to their idea that development of character, which was the inclusive aim of education, could result only where the relation between teacher and pupil was based upon mutual esteem and where the financial nexus was altogether wanting. Consequently there arose toward the sophists a most violent antipathy expressed by all the Opposition of writers with conservative inclination, and a natural desire upon the part of Plato and the members of the philosophical group to differentiate themselves from the despised class, however much they might have in common with it. conservative Greeks aroused Sophists teaching the natural out ing individualism The moral teachings of the sophists placed an unprecedented. emphasis upon individuality. As a class they did not teach come of grow immorality, for they held no common system of views. The only idea common to all was that there were no universal ideas or standards of conduct. In the words of Protagoras, one of the greatest of them, "Man is the measure of all things." As this meant the individual man, the tendency long developing in Greek society toward giving individuality more and more emphasis in moral life and in the educational process here finds its culmination. Naturally many found no basis for continuing the old customs, and a period of great laxity and even dissoluteness |