Climbing Parnassus - 2 - Bowing at the Feet of the Classical Writers
Chapter Two
Quote
Greek and Latin have played the troll under the bridge, jealously guarding access not only to classical learning but also to wider intellectual distinction.
Notes
🔥 A few have sounded the alarm of what would happen if classical education were lost, including this speech from Thomas Arnold in the 1800s: "Expel Greek and Latin from your schools and you confine the views of the existing generation to themselves and their immediate predecessors; you will cut off so many centuries of the world's experience, and place us in the same state as if the human race had come into existence in the 1500s."
🔥 Greek education was tough. Lots of drills, repetition and memorization, especially with Homer, who was known as the "educator of Greece." Students weren't to "respond" or give their opinions on Homer. At first, the goal was just to learn him.
🔥 One major goal in the classical era of education was rhetoric. "To speak well was the indispensable ability — and unmistakable sign — of the educated man."
🔥 Education was about creating "wizards with words," which is "the most effective way of developing subtlety of thought."
🔥 Schools were harsh and disciplined. Teachers were often authoritative, even dictatorial. Elegant speech had to be combined with moral excellence. Students' first task was not to express themselves, "but to bow humbly at the feet of others ... They were to know, not to be known."
🔥 This form of education was not child-centered like modern education is today. Part of the reason for that was the belief then that "values are rooted in the universe, rather than dependent upon one's fallible and changing judgment."
🔥 As discussed before, this also goes against modern ideas about equality. A society must be able to discriminate between the higher and the lower, and aspire to the higher things. Not all things are created equal. And not everyone's opinions or thoughts are of equal value to others.
🔥 Latin and Greek became the literary languages adopted by the church and so they spread all over Europe. There was some tension in the church in bringing in these "pagan" writers and philosophers, but they did recognize the wisdom that was there.
🔥 Through the middle ages, Latin was still the language of culture, of the church, the court, and the university. Then through the Renaissance, ideas about classical education continued to evolve and grow. There was an emphasis then on the practical and useful benefits of a classical education, as well as on how it can help develop good citizens.
🔥 Students should study history both for insights into contemporary affairs and public policy, but also as a resource for moral examples and precepts. They should also study poetry to learn "grace of expression" above all. "Right expression can ensure survival to our best thoughts." They must have style.
🔥 Latin and Greek trains the mind with rigour and precision, but it also gives access to philosophy and wisdom through the classical writers. Many English poets and writers were classically trained and benefited from memorizing the classics.
🔥 Classical education in America (and the New World) was another step in its evolution. Harvard began by requiring a knowledge of Greek and Latin to get in. Other schools had similar requirements.
🔥 The ancient writers are distant from us in time, but what they wrote remains imminently relevant today. "Aristotle and Plato, and Thucydides, and Cicero, and Tacitus, are most untruly called ancient writers. They are virtually our own countrymen and contemporaries, but have the advantage which is enjoyed by intelligent travelers, that their observation has been exercised in a field out of the reach of common men."
🔥 World War One had a deleterious effect on classical education. The classics began to be seen as too distant and dainty. The modern world, after the war, seemed to sweep the classics away, relegating them to a professional, academic, class. And away from the public.
Thoughts
This chapter seems to repeat many of the same ideas from the first chapter. Though it does add a bit more as well, including the idea that students aren't to learn to express themselves or give their opinions, at least at the beginning. First they must bow at the feet of the great writers, like Homer and Virgil, to truly appreciate and understand their work. This is a stark difference between how education is thought about today, where the opinions of students is encouraged.
It seems slightly harsh, but at the same time, also more realistic and humble. Students are pretty ignorant. In fact, most of us are pretty ignorant, generally speaking. Though I'm pretty sure the structure of a classical education moves students through various stages that move them towards a point where they do start crafting their own ideas and opinions eventually, it is important to first learn from those that came before you. A lot of the thoughts that show up in our minds have been well-trodden by our predecessors, and it makes sense to take the time to learn from them before we start opining on things we otherwise don't know anything about.