Recommended to me by Michael Warren OSB long time teacher of R E at St Johns University Long Island and crusader for a gospel currently covered with irrelevance. Marrou's book is full of insights; detailed but never pedantic scholarship. ( )

H. I. Marrou explores how children and young adults were educated from the time of the Iliad and Odyssey down to the time of St. Augustine and beyond.

Full of fascinating insights and information. Marrou starts with what educational system the Iliad and Odyssey seem to presuppose (training in a chivalric warrior and courtier's code).

He then explores education in different parts of classical Greece and the different impacts of education seen as a precursor to philosophical enquiry and education as the production of someone with a well rounded culture in both of what we would now call arts and sciences. Although this seems to have been an ideal which was aimed at nevertheless in practice the literary education seen as necessary for producing orators and administrators gradually squeezed technical training in mathematics, music, and astronomy out of general education, leaving them for specialists.

These Hellenistic trends continued into Roman times with the addition of law as a peculiarly Roman contribution. Marrou concludes with a discussion of the changes due to Christianity (not as many as you might think despite the fulminations of Tertullian and others) and he continues the story in a brief epilogue.

Although the book was written in 1946, I found many resonances for debates in educational theory and practice today and for better or worse the influence of ancient education can still be felt now. ( )

Edition: // Descr: xx, 600 p. 18 cm. // Series: Call No. { 948 M15 } Translated by George Lamb Contains Additional Notes, References, and Analytical Index. // //