Margienifie B. Canda
Direction: Select any three persons
from three different time periods. Create a comparison considering the
following:
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Person
1
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Person
2
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Person
3
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1.
Name
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Plato
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St. Thomas Aquinas
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Jan
Amos Comenius
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2.
Time/Place
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Ancient
Era (ancient Greece)
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Medieval
Period
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Renaissance
Period
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3.
Characteristic of the Time Period
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· Men
ran the government, and spent a great deal of their time away from home.
· With
the exception of ancient Sparta, Greek women had very limited freedom outside
the home.
· Most
Greek cities did not have publicly-funded schools. Education was therefore a
private affair.
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· The Medieval
period represents a renewed flowering
of Western philosophical thought after the intellectual drought of the Dark Ages.
· Much of the period is marked by the influence of Christianity and many of the
philosophers of the period were greatly concerned with proving the existence of God and
reconciling Christianity with classical philosophy.
· An important development in the Medieval period
was the establishment of the first universities
with professional full-time scholars. It should also be noted that there was
also a strong resurgence in Islamic
and Jewish philosophy at this
time.
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· It
was a general re-awakening, revival or rebirth of learning
· The
renaissance upheld the dignity of the human being, renewed the spirit of
nationalism
· It
is also the time for increased trade among countries, and a period of
exploration
· This
lead to scientific research which was used to solve problems
· Books
were printed and thus were made more widely available
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4.
Cultural beliefs about Education
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· Education
was an essential component of a person’s identity in ancient Greece, and the
type of education a person received was based strongly in one’s social class,
the culture of one’s polis, and the opinion of one’s culture on what
education should include.
· The
goal of education in the Greek city-states (Sparta) was to prepare the
child for adult activities as a citizen. On the other hand, the goal of
education in Athens, a democratic city-state, was to produce citizens trained
in the arts of both peace and war.
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· The
objective of medieval education was an overtly religious one, primarily
concerned with uncovering transcendental truths that would lead a person back
to God through a life of moral and religious choice.
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– Education during the Renaissance was still very much tied to religious
organizations. Luther and the Protestants continued to gain power during the
Reformation and one of the ways they exercised it was in the realm of
education. They believed that training people to read the bible would make
truer believers and so they established schools with this goal in mind.
–
The methods employed
primarily involved memorization and passive mimicry of received “wisdom” and
“truth”, and so were highly unlikely to promote critical thinking.
–
Universities continued
to evolve and grow and, with the influence of humanism, began to focus on
worldly rather than otherworldly knowledge. Attention was placed on the
ancient Greeks and Romans, particularly with regards to the questions they
asked about human nature and the natural world.
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5.
Who receives an education?
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· Formal
Greek education was primarily for men, and was, in general, not offered to
slaves, manual laborers, or women. In some poleis, laws were passed to
prohibit the education of slaves. A young girl would receive an informal
education from her mother and would be taught how to maintain a household to
serve her father and, later in life, her husband.
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· Going to school and getting and education
was not done by everyone in Medieval Europe. Only some could go to school and
most of them were boys.
· The education a peasant would get would
only be to make a living.
· Girls were sent to other households to
learn sewing and weaving, skills needed to manage a household.
· Boys who were the sons of lords would learn
proper manners and to play chess2.
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· In
Renaissance Europe, schooling was for those who could afford it. Some people
were well educated, while others never attended school.
· Education
for Renaissance boys was of two sorts. There was classical education based on
the Latin language for boys who planned to go on to a university. There was
also education through apprenticeships for boys who planned to pursue a trade.
· Girls
received less education than boys during the Renaissance. Some girls did
become well educated in the classics, and some also became apprentices. Many
more were educated mainly in practical matters at home.
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6.
What were the prevailing attitudes towards children?
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· In
Athens, as in most Greek city-states, with the exception of Sparta, girls
stayed at home until they were married. Like their mother, they could attend
certain festivals, funerals, and visit neighbors for brief periods of time.
Their job was to help their mother, and to help in the fields, if necessary.
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· Corporal
punishment was in use throughout society and probably also in homes.
· Children
were given tasks in keeping with their ages. For younger children this meant
looking after their smaller siblings, or running errands.
· As
they grew older they might be allocated lighter domestic or agricultural
duties, but they were not capable of doing serious work until about the age
of puberty when they began to acquire strength of an adult kind.
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· There
was excessive and harsh discipline based upon the rod which literally turned
the school into a place of terror on the part of students.
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7.
What was the person’s contribution to the field of education?
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· Plato improved on the Socratic method (use of dialogues) in his
later years and developed a philosophy of education as outlined in The
Republic that became the hallmark of a European liberal arts education.
· He
may have founded an institution of learning known as the Academy,
from which we get the word academic.
· Perhaps
the best known aspect of Plato’s educational thought is his portrayal of the
ideal society in The Republic.
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· He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology at the the peak of Scholasticism in Europe, and the founder
of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology.
· The philosophy of Aquinas has exerted enormous influence on subsequent Christian theology, especially
that of the Roman Catholic Church,
but also Western philosophy in general. His most important and enduring works
are the "Summa Theologica", in which he expounds his
systematic theology of the "quinquae viae" (the five proofs
of the existence of God), and the "Summa Contra Gentiles".
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· Comenius is best known for his contributions to
teaching techniques. Persuaded that education is not limited to the action of
school and family but is part of general social life, he believed that
teachers should understand how a child’s mind develops and learns. He was
convinced that all children, without regard to gender or social class, should
attend school and receive the same education so as to understand and accept
the civilization in which they live.
· Comenius was among the first to teach classical
languages by use of parallel passages of ancient and modern texts; and his
Visible world in pictures (1658) is believed to be the first illustrated
textbook for children.
· Comenius was one of the first educators to
recommend a coherent and standard system of instruction. Indeed, Comenius
suggested that the universality of nature dictated that all people shared
common stages of intellectual development. As a result, he reasoned, teachers
needed to identify their students' stages of development and match the level
of instruction accordingly. Lessons should proceed from easy to complex at a
slow and deliberate pace.
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8.
How was the person a reflection of his/her time?
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· He
exerted a greater influence over human thought.
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·
He was the “angelic doctor”
(emulating a number of other scholars of his day) occupied himself with
listing (giving the sum of) the body of Church in his greatest work,Summa
Theologica.
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·
Comenius was
an advocate of universal education so that the souls of all people would be
enlightened in this fashion. Through universal education and pedagogy,
pansophy would eliminate human prejudice and lead to human perfection–a state
of being that God had intended for man.
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9.
How did the person change education for future generation?
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Plato’s relevance to modern day educators can
be seen at a number of levels:
· One of the principle benefits that the Socratic Method confers
is to allow large bodies of students to engage in "active learning.
Students learn better when they are actively involved in the learning
process" rather than passively taking notes and the teacher dispenses
information."
· He
believed, and demonstrated, that educators must have a deep care for the
well-being and future of those they work with. Educating is a moral
enterprise and it is the duty of educators to search for truth and virtue,
and in so doing guide those they have a responsibility to teach.
· There
is his conceptualization of the differing educational requirements associated
with various life stages.
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· The
teacher and catechist today can learn much from Aquinas’ own pedagogy and
teaching.
· Aquinas
saw the reality and dignity of being a human person in the fact that the
individual is able to come to know the truth and choose the good.
· Responsibility
for knowledge cannot be passed to some over-arching force: it belongs to each
person individually. The enjoyment of knowledge and truth that each person
attains is that
individual person’s enjoyment
of knowledge and truth. Here, Aquinas is concerned with safeguarding the
experiential knowledge of the human person as a truly human and personal act.
For Aquinas, the student really grows in knowledge through experience, and
the knowledge in which he grows he can truly call his own.
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· He
championed “Education for all”. His ideas on education for everyone and for all peoples, and on the
international organization of public education will always be given
importance.
· Other principles will be considered in the
educational system:
-Education
should be in accordance with the child’s natural interest.
-The level
of teaching should be suited to the child’s understanding.
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