Reflection appaer# 15

The education systems between Rome and Athenians differed in many ways. Roman children were taught at home by their parents. Fathers taught their sons in Roman laws, history, ethnicity, and trained them physically so that they were well equipped for war in the future. Meanwhile mothers taught their daughters to pin, knit and sew for both themselves and the family. The goal of education in Rome was to be effective speakers and thus the children attended school every day from sunrise to sunset. They rested, but only for lunch then they would go back to school in the evenings. In contrast to the Roman educational system, in Athenia school attendance was optional and wasn’t authorized by the government. Children went to school up until about the age of 14. If education wasn’t given by the parents the child wasn’t expected to support the parents when they became old of age. Nurses and the elders of the land educated the children to respect and honor the gods. At an early age this was instilled in the minds of the children of Athenia. Around 220BC, borrowing some of the Greek’s educational system, the Romans begin to send their children to school with the father’s permission, at ages 6 and 7. At that time schools were then being paid for. Poor students didn’t attend school; rather they were taught outside the homes. Children who were taught outside of the home were sent to a house to get group-tutored. Those that were taught inside the homes were erudite by intelligent slaves who were skilled in teaching. Children that were really poor simply stayed at home and were taught by their parents. Roman and Athenian students both studied writing, reading and arithmetic, however they didn’t have the same school supplies. Roman students read from scrolls and books, they wrote on boards filled with wax and used small pebbles to solve math problems. In contrast, Athenian students learned the letters from written Greek alphabet and passages from well known poets. They were to memorize and recite them all. Just as the Roman students used pebbles for counting, Athenian students did the same. Athenian students had one extra subject over Roman students, which was music. They played the lyre (a musical instrument of ancient Greece consisting of a sound box made typically from a turtle shell) and performed at festivals and events. The Roman and Athenia education shared a vast variety of things in common, but they were completely different.