Engaging in English Education: The Similarities and Differences between Modern and Ancient English Education Systems

English education (or language education; not everyone speaks English) has been a crucial part of learning ever since the ancient Sumerian schools 4000 years ago (Lemke 53).  This vital field teaches reading, writing, grammar, and argument.  Greeks and Romans placed high value on English education, especially on rhetoric and literature.  In both English education’s structure and curriculum, many parallels exist between ancient Greece and Rome and the modern U.S.

Structure

Modern English studies focus on essay writing more
than speech-writing.

            The structure of Ancient Rome and Greece is surprisingly similar to ours.  According to Jay Lemke, a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, like today, students of all sorts, English and grammar included, would gather together in a group with one or a few teachers and learn with a more or less structured curriculum.  The students would mostly listen, and the teacher would mostly do the talking (53).  To Lemke, the only really significant changes in education over 4000 years is that we now separate students by age and give them new teachers every year or sooner (54).  While separating students and having new teachers have their modern benefits—they keep peers within the generally same learning capacity and let new teacher teach new ideas—the ancient Roman and Greek system of realistic mixed ages and teachers as supportive, long-term mentors also have their plusses. 

Ancient Roman Children at School

Another difference between the ancient and modern is that there was no public or state controlled education (Too 263).  If one wanted to learn, one would have to pay a tutor.  Paying for education made academics something available only to the elite.  Since one usually had to know classic literature before starting an education in rhetoric or grammar, the rich, who had the time and means to read the classics, held another definite advantage (Too 279).  Today, primary and secondary education is virtually free through public, state mandated schools. While the rich still have the advantage of early support and private schooling, education is easily available to all.

Curriculum

            Today, almost every high school English class has a set curriculum.  In ancient times as well, English teaching had a strict curriculum set forth in a handbook of writing exercises called progymnasmata.  The Greek, Theon, authored the earliest known progymnasmata while Quintilian from Rome authored the most famous set of handbooks.  According to Yun Lee Too, a former professor at Colombia University, progymnasmata, were seen as “overly pendantic and sterile for composition” (313) but set the stage for curriculum used today because they showed an incredible amount of order for something so ancient (296).  Furthermore, the ancient curriculum was much more focused on imitation, speech-writing, and oral listening than our English education is today (308).  Today, English curriculum is looser and more engaging than the strict progymnasmata and has changed to accommodate students the face of exploding technological advances (Marlow-Ferguson 1504).  We might use PowerPoint, blogging, and social media to create English education in a modern world, but still hold to the tradition of English education set forth by the ancients. 

Work Cited

Lemke, Jay. “Focus on Policy: Re-Engineering Education in America.” Language Arts 85.1 (2007): 52-60. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

Nuwer, Hank. "United States." World Education Encyclopedia. Ed. Rebecca Marlow-Ferguson. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 1491-1519. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 Dec. 2014.

Too, Yun Lee. Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity. Leiden: Brill, 2001. 261-316. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.