Roman school

[Deanna Witmer]

Roman school

The Roman school is the education system of Ancient Rome.
Each school week of Ancient Rome was believed to begin before sunrise, and last until late afternoon. The fixed beginning of the school year was March 24, which is held in honor of Minerva, the Roman Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge.
In earlier times, a boy's education would have taken place at home. His father would have taught him to read and write with ivory alphabet blocks, and would have prepared him for war with wooden swords. On the other hand, mothers taught their daughters to sew, weave, clean and spin cloth.
The Roman education was divided into three stages:
Contents
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•   1 Primary (first stage)
•   2 Secondary (second stage)
•   3 Tertiary (third stage)
•   4 Teachers
•   5 See also
•   6 References

 Primary (first stage)
The primary school was for the children aged seven to twelve. Students would be accompanied by slaves: one to escort him and another to carry his books and possessions. The students would write on a cera or tabula (wax tablet) with a Stylus (in Latin Stilus) to practice their scripting. This then gave them the option of writing in ink on parchment or papyrus with a quill. If the students were disobedient they would suffer corporal punishments such as a rap across the knuckles with a rod for being disobedient or disrespectful, being hit with a birch branch for not knowing the answer to a question, being whipped with a leather strap for making a serious mistake, and being whipped with a strap with knots in it continuously for not knowing the answers to multiple questions.
 Secondary (second stage)
Boys aged 12–15 studied language and literature either at home with a personal tutor, a gifted slave, or (only boys would go away from home) in public with a grammaticus. Under the Empire, a primary position was given to Virgil's Aeneid. Girls were taught at home by the same personal tutor who taught their brothers. The works that were studied allowed students to practice their reading and to develop their ability to comment on grammar, figures of speech, and the writer's use of mythology. The schools cost a lot of money, and not every parent sent their child to school.
 Tertiary (third stage)
Around 16, rhetoric was studied in public lectures. Things like lawyers and politicians were the most important jobs. There were two main types of rhetorical exercise:
1.   Suasoriae: Developed boy's skills in constructing arguments
2.   Controversiae: Devised arguments for and against the accused
 Teachers
At Rome from the time of Julius Caesar onwards, there were privileges for teachers who were also Roman citizens. Emperor Vespasian (Emperor from 69-79 AD) founded two chairs for the teaching of Greek and Latin rhetoric; Quintilian was the first holder of the Latin chair. Outside Rome, Vespasian granted exemption from civic obligation to teachers of grammar and rhetoric.
The spread of Roman culture and domination in the West was made possible by the teaching of a fairly standard and difficult curriculum to the sons of the local elites.
See also
•   Education in Ancient Rome for a more general perspective on the education in Ancient Rome