How education has changed from its origins in ancient times to the present day

There school It has existed since approximately 4th millennium BCbut originally it was a very different institution from the current one: in fact, it served to educate the small minority of the population who was supposed to take care of theState administration. Over the centuries, many educational systems have been established in the world, different according to civilization, but only since the Enlightenment and the French Revolution has the principle that school must be compulsory, secular and free been affirmed. In recent centuries, many steps have been taken huge progress in the diffusion of knowledge and today in the most developed countries almost all the population has the possibility of accessing the lowest levels of education. However, not all the economic barriers that limit access to university and post-university studies have been removed.

The First Schools in the World: Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks

The first schools of which we have news were established by the Sumerians, in Mesopotamia, around 3500 BC, in order to train officials capable of working in the administration of the State, which had become more complex and “modern” than in the past. In schools, the young people of the most prominent families learned to write and do sums. Something similar also happened in ancient Egypt and among many other ancient populations.

Instead in the Greek civilization which, as we know, was divided into city-states, different systems developed. Generally speaking, education was provided by families and private tutors, but there were also “public schools”, that is, places where children gathered to follow the lessons of a teacher. In the Greek cities, moreover, some high profile cultural institutions: in Athens, Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum; in Alexandria, Egypt, the Museum, equipped with the most important library of the ancient world.

The School of Ancient Rome

Even in Rome, education was mainly imparted by parents and, in wealthy families, by special teachers. However, already in the years of the Republic (509-27 BC) the first public schoolswhich became more widespread in the imperial era. In addition to “institutes” for elementary education, some high schools were also born, in which the teaching of rhetoric had a privileged role, essential for undertaking a political career. The schools were financed by familieswho paid the teachers in charge of educating their children, but from the age of Vespasian (1st century AD) state-funded institutions were also founded.

As the years went by, a curriculum of studies was defined that was valid throughout the empire and focused on two groups of subjects, known as Trivium (grammar, rhetoric and dialectics) and Crossroads (arithmetic, astronomy, geometry and music). Education, however, was a privilege of a small percentage of RomansThe vast majority of the population was illiterate.

Schools in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, education was mainly provided by churches and conventsbecause priests and monks were among the few educated people. For much of the Middle Ages the curriculum based on the Trivium and Quadrivium remained “in force” but, of course, education was adapted to the precepts of the Christian religion. In the Middle Ages, the first universities. Already in the 9th century AD an important Medical Schoolwhich remained alive for many centuries, and in 1088 the University of Bolognaspecialized in legal subjects and considered the first university in history. Over the years, similar institutions spread to many European cities. However, even in the Middle Ages, education was reserved for a very small minority of the population.

Protestant Reformation and Renaissance

Since the sixteenth century, the percentage of citizens who attended schools began to increasealbeit very slowly. In central and northern Europe, the Protestant Reformation favored the spread of education because it pushed the faithful to read the sacred texts themselves, instead of listening to the explanations of the priests, as had happened until then. Consequently, Luther and his followers established schools throughout Protestant countries.

Even in the Catholic world, from the second half of the sixteenth century numerous educational institutions were born, largely founded by the Jesuitsthe new monastic order born to counter Protestantism. The spread of education was facilitated by the new cultural climate created by Humanism and the Renaissance, which paid greater attention to the development of the human person.

The Changes of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution

An important turning point occurred in the 18th century thanks to the spread of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment intellectuals believed that the education of citizens was an indispensable element for the progress of society and therefore they worked to affirm the principle of free, secular and compulsory school for all. The first attempts to impose compulsory schooling were made in Austria and Prussia in the second half of the eighteenth century, but the principle became more established after the French Revolution and Napoleon’s conquests in Europe.

The development of the school in the contemporary age

Over the last two centuries the principle of free and compulsory education has spread throughout almost the entire world, including our country, but its application has been limited for many years by economic conditionsbecause families, in peasant societies such as those of the nineteenth century, could not deprive themselves of the economic contribution of children, who began working in the fields at a young age. In the West, over the years compulsory schooling has found effective application, while in Developing countries some problems still exist.

The case is different for higher levels of education: secondary schools, universities, postgraduate studies. For many years, even in the richest countries, only those from wealthy families could access them, while members of the humblest families learned a trade or began working in the fields after primary school. Gradually, thanks to economic progress, the situation has changed, but even today, not all the obstacles that limit access to higher education for those who belong to the poorest segments of the population have been eliminated and, although the problem is especially evident in developing countries, it also exists in the Western world.

An important change, however, came from the 1968 student revoltwhich reformed the school and university system in a more democratic way, guaranteeing, among other things, that students could participate in the management of educational institutions.