Show GREAT EDUCATORS instructors and philosophers of note THE RESULTS OF THEIR LABORS an excellent article written by B cluff jr B S normal depart ment B Y academy for the benefit of normal students and others interested I 1 desire to explain in as brief a manner as possible the educational ideas of some of the worlds great educators this great spartan lawgiver lived about in the ath century B C in his code of laws iia regulated in detail the management and education of children the child belonged to the state rather than to its parents soon after birth it was brought becore certain officers and if sickly or weak was by them condemned to be exposed on the mountains to die but if earons and healthy it was per to live at the age of seven years healthy boys were taken from their parents and placed in a common home where they were taught in the rudiments of an education at 18 years they entered military bervice th girla remained home in charge of their mot hersby whom they were taught the arts ot housekeeping and managing slaves they wyre required however to appear in public at slated times and go through gymnastic exercises similar to those of abe hoys thus waa brought up and developed that hardy fearless race of people known in history as spartano spartans Spar tans SOLON solon lived and labored in athens mostly during the early part of the sixth century B G the exact date of his birth not being known aside from bia renown as a legislator and ruler he ia known alao as an educator in his plan of aoudy he placed physical and intel culture on the same footing insisting eliat all children should learn to swim and to read after learning these arta the poor should be taught a trade those in better circumstances could learn grammar gymnastics and music The child waa left in the hands of alie nurse until the age oi teven when a pedagogue children took it in charge leading it iu turn to the grammar school the or school for gymnastics and the music school ishlon considered the parent master of his children hut he prohibited the sale oi girls a custom common in greece at that time education was made a common altair of the family aad the state however the parent was not forced to educate liis children bus if he did not lie could claim no support from them in ilia old age by his wise legislation and sound educational policy greatly aided athens on her to prosperity and eminence one of the greatest teachers in greece was the philosopher Hoc ralea he was born about IW B C if in personal appearance pe arance lie anything like pictures are busts represent him lie was positive ly LOW 01 sia iuie corpulent thick necked eyes large mouth and thick lips with nose upturned and nostrils outspread he looked like sensuality personified or even the embodiment ot stupidity but inwardly he wap most refined and virtuous most in and noble his self control was complete his powerful will was supreme he taught all his life and that after a method peculiar to kimseu and yet he was not a teacher in the conventional vent ional sense sen se of today to day he had no schools gave no lessons or lectures and no books his instruct on WAS bv questions and answers and wis w is eiveri wherever he found people willing tu converse in the market p ace in ilie parks and gardens or in the workshops and factories the phil the sophist the presumptions the tradesman and the mechanic were alike subjected to his questionings he strove to cadee peo pie to think to error and to es so acute ind cottine wis lie in his irony that the word irony which originally meant ques came to have the meaning we now it socrates believed that tho mind when properly directed and discover truth through its own energies so he appealed to the spon of his hearers to their innate power sand thua leathem gradually from one fact to another until the truth was found this method he called mabeu tian or the art of giving hirth to ideas there are certainly many useful lessons to be in a careful study of socrates and his method for though be was not a school teacher he was a great educator FLATO like socrates his renowned master plato was an athenian born about B C in his youth he studied painting and music but when in his twentieth year he met socrates he devoted himself enthusiastically to the study of philosophy after the teachers death plato traveled extensively iu egypt and the east visiting schools anil philosophers and preparing himself for his great life work returning to athens he established in a grove called from whence comes our word academy the first philosophical school piato antt rests us not so much in the capacity of teacher as in that of writer on educational subjects his republic is the first scientific treatise on education that lias come to us of this work J J ll has enthusiastically exclaimed would you form an idea of cuhlic education read the lle public of plato it is the finest treatise on education ever written whether cousseau Kous seau is right or nata synopsis of the book is certainly worth reading the aoi plato is an ideal commonwealth mon wealth with an ideal scheme of education uca tion fall of paradoxes and chimaras chimeras chi and yet containing much that is wise and good the individual and even the family are sacrificed to the state children were taken from parents soon after birth and given in charge of common nurses women were to ba subjected to tae same exercises as men and wera even to go to war when necessary the inhabitants were divided up into three classed or casts the laborers or artisans the warrior sand the magistrates between these caste however was not insuperably when a child of the lower class showed exceptional talent he was to be advanced the education of the lower class consisted in learning a trade after tae rudiments were mastered abe warriors were taught music and gymnastics while the magistrates were trained in the higher branches of philosophy and metaphysics and were initiated in all the eci plato lays greater stress ou music than on gymnastics because he considered the cultivation of the soul of greater importance than that of the body and yet he would have only those of robust constitution in his republic commanding that sickly children be exposed on the mountain to die but he emphasized the arts because of heir moral influence above all a moral education was an education in the arts the words beautiful and good are constantly associated in the speech ot the greeks we ought says plato to seek out artists who by the power of cenius can trace out the nature of the fair and tho graceful that our young men dwelling as it were in a healthful region may drink in gord from every quarter plato oinita however in bis educational ay stein two very important subjects of instruction physician physic ial science and li uxry perhaps he imagined in his in idealism that things of sense were 10 worthy of study and hem e save no place to the sciences while his contempt for tradition and the past crowded out history AWIS fuTIE this educator ly fie greatest surely the moat practical of all the grecian philosophers was a macedonian by birth he was born in about B C an the age ot 17 years he became the pupil of plato remain ins with him for twenty years he ex celled his master in clearness of insight into pedagogical questions because of his more practical turn of mind plato considered the ideal aristotle the real he had another advantage over his master lie enjoyed the delights of family life and reared and trained his own children further he was a practical teacher being for three years tho preceptor of alexander afterwards the great hid great school was the lyceum at athens aristotle believed in a public education uca tion he says education should be the bame for all further he says that of the children should be the common care of all and not left to each individual his scheme of instruction st provides for the progressive development of the child there are three claws slaws in human development first the physical life of the body then instinct and sensibility or the irrational part af alie soul and finally the intelligence or reason from thia we conclude that the course of study should be graduated accord ing to these three grades hut be adds in the case we give to ahe sensibilities bili ties we must not leave put of account the intelligence and in our care of alm ody we must not forget the like all his contemporaries aristotle relieved eli eved in a good physical physic cl and moral hi cation in hia course of primary instruction therefore he included music and gymnastics unlike plato he attached no importance to the aoudy of mathematics math matics because it has no bearing upon the ethical nature of man and unlike his teacher he commends poets and artists aristotle Ariato tle ad the study of history plato depreciated it plato found religion in ceremonies aristotle in the hearts of the people Aristotle 8 pedagogic views are sound and advance dHe advised that in every investigation we start from known truths and facts again he says that learning is naturally agreeable and that alie teacher should arouse the self activity atthe pupil |