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Cuneiform mathematics textbooks from this time period have been discovered. This suggests that some form of schooling may have existed in Sumer during that time. Formal schools are also known to have existed in China during this time period.
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Most Greek city-states have adopted a formal educational system. Sparta used their educational system to train their children for effective military support. Athens, however, stressed more intellectual and aesthetic lessons.
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The Romans were heavily influenced by the Greek education system. Many children, after learning to read and write, attended a school to study Latin, literature, history, math, music, and dialectics. These Latin schools are very similar to secondary schools in the 20th century.
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During this period, the common people were politically and religiously oppressed, which stunted the ability for the population to grow and innovate intellectually as the Greeks and Romans previously had. Although formal education was not an option for most people, certain people in the church and in wealthy families were able to receive education and make small advances.
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During the medieval times, most people were taught by Catholic priests, many of whom were corrupt. Through his works as a theologian, Thomas Aquinas helped to change the churches view on how commoners should learn and grow in knowledge. Thomas Aquinas helped pave the way for the creation of medieval universities.
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The Reformation questioned the school system of the Middle Ages in which most schools belonged to parishes or convents.The Reformation’s basic assumption was that every man had the right to education. This was also true for girls. As early as 1530, a girls’ school was opened in Wittenberg. In Geneva too, education was of paramount importance. Children , boys and girls, were given public and free elementary education.
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The 17th century. One of the educational pioneers of great stature was John (Johann) Amos
Comenius (1592-1670). Effective education, Comenius insisted, must take into account the nature
of the child. His own observations of children led him to the conclusion that they were not
miniature adults. -
The Renaissance, which started in Italy, was a rebirth of the people's thirst for new knowledge. The Renaissance slowly spread throughout Europe, which led to a revival of classical learning known as "humanism." To the seven liberal arts, the humanists added history and physical games and
exercises. Humanist education was primarily enlivened by the addition of Greek to the curriculum
and an emphasis on the content of Greek and Roman literature -
The learning methods were
drill and memorization of words. In the secondary Latin grammar schools and the universities the linguistic narrowness and
otherworldliness of classical studies persisted.In the 17th century philosophers, too, were beginning to develop theories of learning that
reflected the new scientific reliance on first hand observation. One of the men whose theories had
the greatest impact on education was the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). -
Rousseau's observations and their educational ramifications were a complete reversal of the
educational theories and practices of the 1700s. The prevailing theory was that the child differs
from the adult in the quantity of his mind. The child, presumably, is born with the same, but
weaker, mental faculties as the adult. -
Practical content was soon competing vigorously with religious concerns.As the spirit of science, commercialism, secularism, and individualism quickened in the Western
world, education in the colonies was called upon to satisfy the practical needs of seamen,
merchants, artisans, and frontiersmen.Benjamin Franklin helped found in 1751 was the first of a growing number of
secondary schools that sprang up in competition with the Latin schools. -
Kindergarten itself is a German invention, and the first kindergartens opened in the United States were by German immigrants. They adopted the ideas of educational theorist Friedrich Froebel,
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In the mid-19th century there was yet another change in education. The secondary-school
curriculum that had been slowly expanding since the founding of the academies in the mid-18th
century virtually exploded in the mid-19th. -
Although such principles remained the basis of America’s educational endeavour, that endeavour—like America itself—underwent a vast evolution. The once-controversial parochial schools not only continued to exist but also increasingly drew public financial support for programs or students. The currency of privatization, carrying the idea of free choice in a private-sector educational market,
