Elementary Education in the History of Civilization

Where in the world would you be without your elementary education?  You certainly wouldn’t be here at BYU working on your post-secondary education.  Education for children is at the basis of civilization.  Without it there are no doctors, business men, artisans, teachers and so on.  In any civilization, recent or ancient, you can see there was a certain education system.  I’d like to focus on elementary education and its changes in recent history and in ancient Greece. 

In Greece, children started their elementary education around seven years of age.  It was divided between formal and informal education.  Formal education was for those families who had the money to pay for a pedagogue, or a private instructor, to teach their children.  The pedagogue would teach in the family’s home and would teach basic skills like reading, writing, and basic morals.  Writing was done with a stylus onto a board that was covered in wax.   We can see that although our education system has evolved it is quite similar to this.

There have been recent changes in the world that have affected the education system.  I talked to Lucelia Albernaz, a retired Elementary School principal, to learn more about these changes.  She said that the major factor in the recent history of education has been the technological development that has occurred.  I remember going to the computer lab during the school week in Elementary School and having to practice typing.  Now technology has become an even bigger part in the education of our children.  It is how grades are given, communication between the teacher and parent is done and now there are even classes that are flipped or use blended learning where the students watch video lectures at home and then problems and homework is done in the classroom with the help and guidance of the teacher.  This helps children to work at their own pace and to have more individualized time with the teacher in the classroom.  Writing is now done through technology so there is no more use for a stylus and wax board.  There has been a recent change from chalk boards to white boards and now to over-head projectors.  Lucelia also talked about the change in what is permitted to be spoken of like the use of drugs, homosexual marriage, religion, and the conception of children. 

So with all these changes is our children’s’ education improving?

Works Cited

Albernaz, Lucelia, Personal Interview, December 3, 2014.

Ed. Sienkewicz, “Education and Training,” Ancient Greece (New Jersey: Salem Press, Inc., 2007), 245.