Education in a primitive society. Pedagogy of the ancient Slavs. The origin of education in a primitive society

23.07.2019

Thousands of years separate us from the time when a modern man appeared on Earth. This period (40-35 thousand years ago) also includes the emergence of upbringing as a special type of human activity.

The restoration of the picture of upbringing in a primitive society is complicated by the lack of serious sources, written evidence.

Modern world science offers several concepts of the origin of upbringing. Traditional include evolutionary biological theory and psychological theory... Representatives of the evolutionary biological theory associated the educational activity of people of primitive society with the instinctive concern for offspring inherent in higher animals. Proponents of the psychological theory explained the origin of upbringing by the manifestation of an unconscious instinct in children to imitate adults. Similarly in both theories, the assertion that primitive upbringing arose as a gradual adaptation of children to the existing order of things. As P. Monroe wrote in this regard, “the world of primitive man is concentrated in the present. He has almost no consciousness of the past and the future. His upbringing is only an adaptation to the environment. "

Many modern researchers, agreeing with the need to take into account when considering the origin of upbringing, the continuity between the forms of rational activity in some higher animals and in humans, emphasize the qualitative social characteristics that distinguished human upbringing at its inception in the form of a special type of activity.

The life and upbringing of primitive man looked very primitive. The meaning of existence of human ancestors was predetermined by his world outlook. The world around us was perceived as something alive, endowed with consciousness. The spontaneously emerging goals of education were to prepare for the simplest existence and to understand the world as an animistic phenomenon. The rudiments of pedagogical thought developed only at the level of everyday consciousness. They boiled down to practical education and manifested themselves in traditions and folklore.

Upbringing began as a physical, mental and moral-emotional maturation. Initially (2-3 million years ago, in the era of the separation of man from the animal world), the upbringing of the ancestors of modern man looked haphazard, spontaneous. Its content and techniques became more complicated as social experience and consciousness enriched.

The isolation of man from the animal world was accompanied by a gradual transition to the conscious transfer of the experience of gathering and hunting. The ancestors of modern people, in order to ensure and preserve their life, had to know well edible plants, terrain, animal habits, be strong and hardy. Therefore, upbringing was, first of all, part of the daily struggle for survival.

Gradually, education as a transfer of experience from generation to generation acquires the features special kind of activity... The manufacture and use of tools, the improvement of economic ties were indispensable conditions for the existence of the ancients, which inevitably increased the role of adults and encouraged them to develop education as a specific type of activity. In addition, speech that arose among primitive people became a powerful means of transmitting life experience.

Thus, it can be assumed that upbringing arose from the need of people for communication and turned out to be closely connected with the evolution of forms of primitive labor.

At the dawn of history, a specific feature of humanity was a group, collective beginning in education. Primitive upbringing prepared everyone equally for everyday life. The only and almost absolute guidelines for the differentiation of upbringing were the gender and age of the children. The upbringing flowed from a communal way of life, nourishing and cementing such a way of being.

With the advent of a person of a modern physical type, a new stage began in the genesis of upbringing. In him, the social predestination became more and more intensified.

In the 9th - 8th millennia BC. in a number of regions of the world, in particular, Asia Minor, Western and Central Asia, there is a social and property stratification of primitive society. The main social unit becomes a family... These processes have qualitatively changed the meaning and content of education.

From universal, equal, community-controlled education turns into estate-family... Children were brought up primarily on the example of their parents. The upbringing of representatives of various strata - leaders, priests, warriors, other members of the community - acquires noticeable differences. In the families of the elite, the period of childhood increases and, accordingly, the educational impact on the younger generations increases.

The people of the primitive era used certain educational methods in the transfer of experience. Techniques were developed under the influence of living conditions, and therefore the initial forms and methods of education were of a primitive, unconscious nature. For example, children were shown what to do and how: how to act with a stick, skin a killed animal, find and collect edible plants, etc. The main method of emotional and psychological influence of adults was mechanical repetition. From the words of the parents and through imitation, the children perceived the information and experience of their predecessors. This experience was rated as mystery and magic.

As time went on, and man from adaptation to nature more and more often moved to the impact on the world around him. As life and economic activity became more complex, the tasks and methods of transferring social experience changed. The rudiments of organized forms of upbringing appear. Gradually, it is concentrated in the hands of specially appointed persons.

In primitive communities of hunters and gatherers, the period of childhood and upbringing was very short and was limited to the age of 9 to 11 years. The youngest boys and girls were given over to the supervision of women, who taught them their first skills in working life. During this period, children spent a lot of time in games, imitating the life of adults. Elders and clergymen made sure that children did not violate the prohibitions established by the community.

Growing up, boys spent more and more time with men, getting involved in hunting, fishing, etc. Women taught adolescent girls about housekeeping.

In the early primitive era, the impact of parenting was minimal. The small members of the community were given considerable freedom of behavior. The punishments were not harsh. In the worst case, it could be spanking or threats of physical punishment (hitting with a stick on the trail of the child in his presence). But primitive upbringing was not and could not be idyllic, since people lived in difficult, difficult conditions of the struggle for survival.

In the future, the situation changes. The stratification of the community and the growth of social contradictions have intensified education. Physical punishment was often used.

The collective tradition of upbringing at the end of the primitive communal period led to the emergence of a kind of youth houses for children and adolescents. In fact, these were the predecessors of schools, organized for the education of a public person, teaching him certain labor skills, abilities, rituals. Joint games and activities remained the main form of upbringing.

The nature of the activity, the composition of pupils and mentors in youth homes gradually changed. Under conditions of matriarchy up to 7-8 years old, boys and girls were brought up together under the leadership of women; at an older age - separately. Under the patriarchal clan system, youth houses become separate. The upbringing of boys is completely transferred to the elders and priests. As a result of property stratification, separate youth houses appear for the poor and for the wealthy members of the community. They existed, for example, among the Aztec and Mayan tribes (America), the Majori tribe (New Zealand) at the stage of decomposition of the patriarchal community.

All adolescents of both sexes who have reached the age of 10-15 underwent initiation - the procedure of initiation into adults. For boys, it was longer and more complex. The initiation was carried out in the form of a religious ceremony, and was accompanied by traditional chants, ritual dances, and magic spells. She was credited with a mysterious power. The program of preparation for initiation for boys included the acquisition of knowledge and practical skills necessary for a hunter, farmer, warrior, etc., a program for girls - the acquisition of skills in housekeeping. Memorization of instructions, consolidation of certain skills were accompanied by painful sensations from a blow, pinch, or prick inflicted by the mentor.

In the book Psychology of Play, D. B. Elkonin, referring to the research of the German scientist R. Alt, highlights the following characteristic features of the process of raising children at the early stages of development of society: first, the same upbringing of all children and the participation of all members of society in the upbringing of everyone child; secondly, the comprehensiveness of upbringing - every child should be able to do everything that adults can do, and take part in all aspects of the life of the society of which he is a member; thirdly, the short duration of the period of upbringing - children already at an early age know all the tasks that life sets, they early become independent of adults, their development ends earlier than at later stages of social development.

Education as a special type of human activity appeared in primitive society about 40 - 35 thousand years ago. By this period, a reasonable person of a modern physical type (homo sapiens) appears on Earth. The life and upbringing of primitive man looked very primitive. Common labor and property, the absence of exploitation and classes, collective life, common children, and the absence of specially organized forms of education were a characteristic feature of primitive society.

The purpose of upbringing was to prepare the child to meet practical needs, that is, mastering the simplest labor skills (hunting, fishing, making weapons and clothes, cultivating the land) and including the younger generation in collective work.

Upbringing in a primitive society is conventionally divided into three independent periods: upbringing in prenatal society; upbringing in the tribal community; education in the period of decay of primitive society.

Upbringing in prenatal society was extremely limited and primitive. It was collective, universal, spontaneous, unsystematic, utilitarian, applied. The children were common, belonged to the entire family, and from childhood they actively participated in the life of the community. In work and everyday communication with adults, they learned the necessary life skills and work skills, got acquainted with customs, learned to perform religious rituals.

The division of labor and social functions at the stage of prenatal society were based on a natural biological foundation, as a result of which there was a division of labor between men and women (a woman is a mother and keeper of the family hearth, a man is a breadwinner and a warrior). Therefore, boys, together with adult men, went hunting and fishing, made tools and weapons, and defended the tribe from enemies. Girls, in turn, with experienced women engaged in gathering, cooked food, sewed clothes, protected the hearth, etc.

Antenatal society was divided into three main age groups: children and adolescents; full-fledged and full-fledged participants in life and work (active and able-bodied members of the community); elderly and old people who do not participate in the active working life of society. Each age group was assigned specific rules of conduct, rights and responsibilities.

The expansion of the working experience of people, the emergence at a certain stage of the development of human society of animal husbandry, agriculture, crafts, which naturally led to the complication of the process of education, which has acquired a more versatile and planned character in the tribal community. It was in the tribal community that an objective need arose for organized upbringing, which began to stand out as a special form of social activity.

The clan community entrusted the education of the younger generation to the older, most experienced members of the community. At this stage, the volume and content of the transferred knowledge is expanding. Along with the introduction of children to work, they are introduced to the rudiments of military and moral education, with the rules of religious cult, taught the simplest writing.

Many millennia separate us from the time when a man of the modern physical type appeared on Earth. This period (35-40 thousand years ago) also includes the emergence of education as a special type of human activity.

The meaning of the existence of primitive man was predetermined by his outlook on the world: the world around him was perceived as something living, endowed with consciousness. Therefore, the spontaneously emerging goals of upbringing presupposed preparation for the simplest type of existence and the awareness of the world as an animistic phenomenon. The rudiments of pedagogical thought developed only at the level of everyday consciousness as a reflection of the practice of education, manifested in traditions and folk art.

The prerequisite and essential factor for the formation of upbringing as a type of activity was the evolution of material ties between people of the primitive era, the need to maintain and develop such ties through the transfer of experience from person to person, from generation to generation. Education arose from people's need for communication as a consequence of the evolution of forms of primitive labor, since the gradual complication of production experience required a certain organization of its assimilation.

The main condition for the existence of primitive people was the manufacture and use of tools. The elders had to pass on the relevant experience to the children. Therefore, the role of adults in organizing the education of children became more and more significant as labor and tools became more complex. Such training laid the foundation for education in a primitive society.

At the dawn of human history, the basis of education was a group, collective beginning. The gender and age of children in primitive society were practically the only indicators in the differentiation of education.

Primitive upbringing prepared everyone equally for everyday life, since it flowed from the communal way of life, nourishing and cementing such a way of human existence.However, such existence was primarily a consequence of the entire life of primitive man and only partly the result of special pedagogical influence.

In a classless society, all children were raised in the same way, early involving them in activities available to them. From an early age, they took part in obtaining food - they collected edible plants and fruits. With age, the degree of their participation in joint work with adults increased. Together with the elders and under their guidance, children and adolescents acquired the necessary life and work skills and abilities. It was natural that there was some difference in the upbringing of boys and girls. Boys participated with men in hunting and fishing, they were taught to fight, shoot a bow, ride a horse; girls helped women prepare food, make clothes, dishes. All children were taught to take care of animals, to engage in agriculture; with the development of crafts, they were taught crafts.

Children were indispensable participants in community holidays, which included ritual games, dancing, singing, and sacrifices. The clan community instructed the older, experienced people to acquaint the younger generation with the rituals, traditions and history of the clan, with religious beliefs, and to educate the younger generation to respect the elders and the dead. An important place in the upbringing of the morals and behavior of children was played by oral folk art: legends, songs, etc.

The transition of young men and women to full members of the clan was preceded by special training under the guidance of the most authoritative and wise people. It ended with an initiation, which consisted of public tests in which the readiness of young people to fulfill the duties of an adult member of a tribal society was tested.

With the advent of a person of a modern physical type, a new stage began in the genesis of upbringing.

History of pedagogy

OCR Biografia.Ru

Part I

1. Education in a primitive society 2. Education, school and the birth of pedagogical thought in a slave society 3. Education, school and pedagogical thought in a feudal society 4. Pedagogical theory of Jan Amos Comenius 5. Pedagogical views of John Locke 6. Pedagogical theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau 7. Pedagogical views of the French materialists of the 18th century (Helvetius, Diderot) 8. Educational thought and school during the French bourgeois revolution of the 18th century 9. Pedagogical theory of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 10. Pedagogical theory of Johann Herbart 11. Pedagogical activities and views of Adolph Disterweg 12. Enlightenment activities and pedagogical views of Robert Owen 13. The doctrine of K. Marx and F. Engels about education 14. Pedagogical thought in the late XIX and early XX centuries in Western Europe and the United States 15. The state of public education and schools in capitalist countries in the middle of the XX century 16. Education, school and pedagogical thought in the pre-feudal period odes and during the period of feudalism (from ancient times to the 17th century inclusive) in Russia 17. Education, school and pedagogical thought in Russia in the 18th century 18. School and pedagogy in Russia in the first half of the 19th century 19. Pedagogical theory of Russian revolutionary democrats V.G. Belinsky and AI Herzen 20. Pedagogical activities and views of NI Pirogov 21. Revolutionary-democratic pedagogical theory of NG Chernyshevsky and NA Dobrolyubov 22. Great Russian teacher KD Ushinsky 23. Pedagogical activities and views of Leo Tolstoy 24. School reforms in the 60s of the XIX century. School in the period of reaction 70-80-ies 25. Progressive figures in pedagogy of the second half of the XIX century 26. School and pedagogical thought of the peoples of Russia in the second half of the XIX - early XX century

Chapter 1. Education in a primitive society

The question of the origin of education. The question of the origin of upbringing is of great fundamental importance. Bourgeois scientists and scholars who hold Marxist-Leninist methodological positions approach it differently. Despite the fact that among bourgeois sociologists there are different opinions on this issue, they all tend to ignore the close connection that existed between the economic life and work of primitive people and the upbringing of children at the earliest stage of social development. A number of concepts of bourgeois scientists about the origin of upbringing were created under the influence of vulgar evolutionary ideas about human development, which leads to ignoring the social essence of upbringing, to biologizing the upbringing process.

Operating with carefully collected factual material about the presence in the animal world of the "care" of the older generations for the transfer of the skills of adaptation to the environment to the younger, the supporters of such concepts (for example, C. Letourneau, A. Espinas) identify the instinctive actions of animals with the educational practice of primitive people and come to the wrong conclusion that the only basis of upbringing is the instinctive desire of people to procreate and the law of natural selection.

Among bourgeois scientists there is also a widespread opinion, which was formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that the basis of upbringing is the instinctive desire of children to actively imitate their elders (this theory was developed, for example, by the American author P. Monroe). Thus, the biological interpretation of the reasons for the emergence of upbringing was opposed to the psychological one. This theory, like any attempt to explain the emergence of a social phenomenon exclusively by factors of a psychological nature, is clearly idealistic in nature, although, of course, elements of imitation take place in the process of education, communication of children with peers and adults.

The Soviet history of pedagogy, explaining the origin of education, relies on the teachings of the classics of Marxism-Leninism about the development of society and man as a natural and social being.

The main condition for the emergence of upbringing was the labor activity of primitive people and the social relations formed in this process. F. Engels in his classic work "The Role of Labor in the Process of the Transformation of a Monkey into a Man" wrote: "Labor created man himself." The biological prerequisites for the formation of man could serve as the basis for the transition from an animal state to a human state through labor. Human society arose from the time when man began to manufacture tools.

The labor activity of primitive people, aimed at satisfying their natural needs for survival and reproduction, transformed an animal into a person, created a human society in which the formation of a person began to be determined by social laws. The use of primitive tools of labor and the ever expanding and increasingly complex conscious production of them entailed the need to transfer labor knowledge, skills and experience to the younger generations.

At first, this happened in the process of work, all household and social life. In the future, education becomes a special sphere of human activity and consciousness.

Education in a primitive society. At the first stage of development of a primitive society - in a prenatal society - people appropriated the finished products of nature and hunted. The process of obtaining livelihoods was in its own way uncomplicated and at the same time laborious. Hunting for large animals, a hard struggle with nature could only be carried out in conditions of collective forms of life, labor and consumption. Everything was common, there were no social differences between the members of the collective.

Social relations in a primitive society coincide with consanguineous relations. The division of labor and social functions in it was based on natural biological foundations, as a result of which there was a division of labor between men and women, as well as the age division of the social collective.

Antenatal society was divided into three age groups: children and adolescents; full-fledged and full-fledged participants in life and work; elderly people and old people who no longer have the physical strength to fully participate in common life (at further stages of the development of the primitive communal system, the number of age groups increases).

A person born at first fell into the general group of growing up and aging, where he grew up in communication with peers and old people, wise by experience. It is interesting that the Latin word еducare means literally "to pull out", in a broader figurative meaning "to grow", respectively, the Russian "upbringing" has its root "to feed", its synonym "to feed", where is "feeding"; in ancient Russian writing, the words "education" and "feeding" are synonyms.

Having entered the appropriate biological age and having received some experience of communication, work skills, knowledge of the rules of life, customs and rituals, a person moved to the next age group. Over time, this transition began to be accompanied by the so-called initiations, "initiations", that is, tests during which the preparation of young people for life was tested: the ability to endure hardships, pain, show courage, endurance.

Relationships between members of one age group and relationships with members of another group were regulated by unwritten, loosely implemented customs and traditions that reinforced the emerging social norms.

In prenatal society, one of the driving forces of human development is also the biological mechanisms of natural selection and adaptation to the environment. But with the development of society, the social laws that are taking shape in it begin to play an ever greater role, gradually taking a dominant place.

In a primitive society, the child was brought up and trained in the process of his life, participation in the affairs of adults, in everyday communication with them. He was not so much preparing for life, as it became later, as he was directly involved in the activities available to him, together with his elders and under their guidance, he was accustomed to collective work and everyday life. Everything in this society was collective. Children also belonged to the entire family, first to the mother, then to the father. In work and everyday communication with adults, children and adolescents learned the necessary life skills and work skills, got acquainted with customs, learned to perform rituals that accompanied the life of primitive people, and all their duties, to completely subordinate themselves to the interests of the clan, the requirements of the elders.

The boys participated with adult men in hunting and fishing, in the manufacture of weapons; the girls, under the leadership of women, gathered and grew crops, cooked food, made dishes and clothes.

At the last stages of matriarchy development, the first institutions appeared for the life and education of growing people - houses of youth, separate for boys and girls, where, under the guidance of the elders of the clan, they prepared for life, work, "initiations".

At the stage of the patriarchal tribal community, cattle breeding, agriculture, and crafts appeared. In connection with the development of the productive forces and the expansion of people's labor experience, upbringing became more complicated, which acquired a more versatile and planned character. Children were accustomed to caring for animals, agriculture, and crafts. When the need arose for a more organized upbringing, the clan community entrusted the upbringing of the younger generation to the most experienced people. Along with equipping children with labor skills and skills, they introduced them to the rules of the emerging religious cult, legends, taught them to write. Legends, games and dances, music and songs, all folk oral creativity played a huge role in the upbringing of morals, behavior, and certain character traits.

As a result of further development, the tribal community became a "self-governing, armed organization" (F. Engels). The beginnings of military education appeared: boys learned to shoot a bow, use a spear, ride a horse, etc. In age groups, a clear internal organization appeared, leaders emerged, the program of "initiations" became more complicated, for which specially selected elders of the clan prepared young people. Began to pay more attention to the assimilation of the rudiments of knowledge, and with the advent of writing and writing.

The implementation of upbringing by special people singled out by the tribal community, the expansion and complication of its content and the test program with which it ended - all this testified to the fact that in the conditions of the tribal system, upbringing began to stand out as a special form of social activity.

Education during the period of decay of primitive society. With the advent of private property, slavery, and the monogamous family, primitive society disintegrated. An individual marriage arose. The family became one of the most important social phenomena, the main economic unit of society; the functions of raising children were transferred to it from the clan community. Family education has become a mass form of education. But "youth houses" continued to exist, schools began to appear.

The emerging ruling groups of the population (priests, leaders, elders) strove to separate mental education from training in occupations requiring physical labor. The rudiments of knowledge (measuring fields, predicting river floods, methods of treating people, etc.), the ruling groups concentrated in their hands, made them their privilege. To teach this knowledge, special institutions were created - schools, which were used to strengthen the power of leaders, priests, and elders. So, in ancient Mexico, the children of noble people were freed from physical labor, studied in a special room and studied sciences that were not known to the children of ordinary people (for example, pictographic writing, stargazing, area calculations). This raised them above the rest.

Physical labor became the lot of the exploited. In their families, children learned to work early, parents passed on their experience to them. Organized upbringing of children, carried out in schools, became more and more the lot of the elite.

Chapter 2. Education, school and the birth of pedagogical thought in a slave society

As a result of further historical development, the primitive communal system was replaced by a new social formation - the slave system. In the ancient East, the first class societies arose and the foundations of material and spiritual culture were laid, which to some extent was perceived and reworked by the peoples of Greece and Rome.

School in the countries of the ancient East. In the countries of the ancient East, special institutions (schools) increasingly became the privilege of the ruling groups of the population.

In ancient times, a school was born and strengthened in India. For millennia, the so-called community school, created by communities of ordinary farmers, has preserved its existence there. Along with it, schools in cities and temples for the noble and the rich were of great importance.

Schools also developed in Asia Minor and Africa (Egypt). In a number of states, there was agriculture associated with artificial irrigation, using such natural phenomena as periodic flooding of rivers.

People observed natural phenomena, learned to predict floods, gained experience in the construction of dams and all kinds of structures. The rudiments of sciences appeared: astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, medicine; the simplest machines (gates, "tackles", etc.) began to be created for buildings. All this information was concentrated in the hands of the ruling groups of the population, often clothed with mysticism and mystery. In addition to the closed priestly or court schools, schools arose for the needs of state and economic management - these are schools for scribes, schools for employees, etc. Gradually, the method of writing also changed in some countries. For example, in Egypt, priestly schools taught a complex hieroglyphic ("sacred") writing, and in schools for scribes, a simplified (hieratic) writing was used.

When teaching writing and counting, some facilitating techniques were used, for example, counting on multi-colored pebbles, simplified methods of calculating, etc. Finger counting was widespread among all peoples.

In ancient China, there were lower and higher schools. In high schools, children of the privileged learned to read and write in a complex hieroglyphic way, studied philosophy and morality (of a religious nature), the works of writers and poets. Some information on astronomy was also reported there.

The most ancient manuscripts (China, India, Egypt, etc.) contain valuable thoughts about education, about the requirements for a teacher and pupil.

The discipline, especially in the scribe schools, was severe, and corporal punishment was widely used. "The ear of a boy is on his back," says one ancient Egyptian manuscript. Most of the children of common people and slaves were not trained in schools; basic knowledge and skills related to work and norms of behavior were communicated to them by parents and others.

Education, school and pedagogical thought in Ancient Greece. Ancient Greece is a country that consisted of a number of small slave states (policies). The most influential of these were Laconia with the main city Sparta and Attica with the main city Athens. In each of these states, special educational systems have developed: Spartan and Athenian. The difference between these two systems was due to some features of economic and political development and the state of culture of states. But both states were slave-owning, and the system of social education served only the children of slave-owners. Slaves throughout Greece were viewed only as "talking tools". They were deprived of all human rights, including the right to study in schools.

Laconia (Sparta) occupied a territory in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese, on the coast of which there were no convenient harbors. The country was dominated by agriculture, based on the labor of slaves. The insignificant semi-free unequal population for the most part belonged to artisans. Nine thousand families of slave owners held more than 250 thousand enslaved population under their rule. The exploitation of slaves in Sparta was brutal, and slaves often rebelled. The life of the Spartans was subordinated to the main requirement - to be in a state of military readiness, to show cruelty and violence towards slaves.

Education was carried out by the state, it pursued the task of preparing soldiers from the children of the Spartiats, staunch and hardened, future slave owners.

From the age of 7, the Sparta boys, who lived at home until that time, were placed in a special kind of state educational institutions called agella, where they were brought up and trained until the age of 18. Their leader was a well-known to the authorities a man-pedon. Particular attention was paid to the physical education of adolescents: they were tempered, taught to endure cold, hunger and thirst, to endure pain. Much attention was paid to military gymnastic exercises. Young Spartiats were taught to run, jump, throw a disc and a spear, fight, use hand-to-hand combat techniques, and sing warlike songs. Music, singing and religious dances, which were of a fighting, warlike nature, were added to physical education.

"As for reading and writing," wrote the Greek historian Plutarch, "the children learned only the most necessary things, the rest of their upbringing pursued only one goal: unquestioning obedience, endurance and the science of winning."

The main task was to instill contempt, ruthlessness for slaves among the growing slave owners. To this end, they took part in the so-called "crypts", that is, night round-ups on slaves, when a detachment of young Spartiats cordoned off any city block or area outside the city and killed any slave-helot.

Moral and political education was given during special conversations between state leaders and young people, to whom they told about the fortitude and courage of their ancestors in the fight against the enemies of the fatherland, about heroes. Children were taught to be clear and concise in their answers ("laconic speech").

Young men 18-20 years old were transferred to a special group of ephebes and carried out military service. Much attention was paid to the military and physical education of girls. When men, suppressing slave revolts or going to war, left the city and dwellings, armed women guarded and held the slaves in submission.

Athenian education was organized differently. Economic life in Athens was not as closed as in Sparta. Private property was established on the slaves. In Athens in the 5th-4th centuries BC. NS. the culture developed rapidly. Engels pointed out that in the diverse forms of Greek philosophy all the later types of world outlook were in embryo. In the views of some philosophers of this time, elements of both materialism and dialectics are visible. Natural science, mathematics, history, art, literature, wonderful Greek architecture and sculpture developed.

The Athenians considered the ideal person to be one who is beautiful in physical and moral terms, and sought to combine mental, moral, aesthetic and physical education. But this ideal fully applied only to the social elite, the slave-owners. Physical labor was considered the duty of only slaves. However, as a result of stratification among the slave owners, a significant group of poor free-born and freedmen was isolated, who were forced to engage in craft or other activities, including teaching. The contemptuous attitude of the wealthy slave owners was transferred to them.

In Athens, children under 7 were brought up at home. Boys from this age began to attend school. The girls received further education in the family, accustoming themselves to household chores. The life of a woman in Athens was generally closed and concentrated in the female half of the house (gynequee). Initially, children (from 7 to 13-14 years old) studied in the schools of the grammarist and the kifarist (either simultaneously, or sequentially - first at the school of the grammarist and then the kifarist). These schools were private and paid, and therefore a significant part of the children of free-born, but without the means of citizens (the so-called demos) could not receive education in them. Classes in schools were taught by didascal teachers (didasco - I teach, later: didactics - teaching theory). The boys were accompanied to school by one of the slaves, who was called a teacher (from the words "pais" - a child, "agogein" - to lead).

At school, the grammarist was taught to read, write and count. The letter-subjunctive method was used: children memorized letters by their names (alpha, beta, gamma, etc.), then put them into syllables, then syllables into words. For teaching writing, waxed tablets were used, on which letters were written with a thin stick (style). Learned to count with fingers, pebbles and a counting board, the so-called abacus, reminiscent of abacus. At the kifarist school, the boy was given literary education and aesthetic education: he studied music, singing, recitation (excerpts from the Iliad and Odyssey were read).

At the age of 13-14, the boys went to an educational institution called a palestra (wrestling school). Here, for two or three years, they were engaged in a system of physical exercises, which was called pentathlon and included running, jumping, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing and swimming. They had conversations with them on political and moral issues. The physical education and conversations in the Palestine were led by the most prominent citizens.

The most well-to-do part of the youth went further to the gymnasium (later - gymnasium), where they studied philosophy, politics, literature, in order to prepare for participation in government, and continued to practice gymnastics.

Finally, as in Sparta, young men from 18 to 20 years old passed into ephebia, where their military and political education continued. They learned to build fortifications, operate military vehicles, served in city garrisons, studied maritime affairs, and participated in public festivals and theatrical performances.

The stratification within the slave-owning society in the Republic of Athens affected in the field of education in the fact that versatile education became available only to the children of rich slave owners. Children of the bulk of the free-born population (demos) could not study in schools. The fathers taught their children the craft, and some also taught the literacy. This was enshrined in the law, according to which low-income parents were obliged to teach their children this or that craft, otherwise the children were freed in the future from material concerns about elderly parents. The slave-owning nobility looked at free-born, engaged in labor, with contempt. Slaves were regarded only as "talking tools".

The origin of pedagogical theory in Ancient Greece. The public speeches and writings of the ancient Greek scientists and philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Democritus contain valuable thoughts about education and training.

Socrates (469-399 BC) is an idealist philosopher. Despite his democratic origin (the son of a poor artisan-sculptor), he was the ideologist of the conservative landed aristocracy, which was reflected in his philosophical and pedagogical views. He believed that the structure of the world, the physical nature of things are unknowable, that people can only know themselves, that there are universal and unchanging moral concepts.

The goal of education, according to Socrates, should not be the study of the nature of things, but the knowledge of oneself, the improvement of morality.

Socrates - a philosopher-tribune, led conversations on morality in squares and in other public places, encouraged his listeners to search for "truth" by questions and answers, without giving them ready-made propositions and conclusions. This method was called Socratic, from which later Socratic conversation developed by the method of leading questions.

Plato (427-347 BC) - idealist philosopher, disciple of Socrates, creator of the theory of objective idealism. He considered the "world of ideas" as primary, and the world of sensible things as secondary, developed the idea of the existence of incorporeal forms of things, which he called "species" or "ideas." He divided the world into a world of ideas and a world of phenomena. In his opinion, ideas are eternal and unchanging. For him, things are just shadows of the world of ideas.

Plato, a representative of the Athenian aristocracy, put forward the theory of the eternal domination of the aristocracy. Constructed an ideal aristocratic state in which there should be three social groups: philosophers, warriors, artisans and farmers. Philosophers rule, warriors guard the state order, and the third group works and maintains the first two.

Slaves are also preserved in this state. Both slaves and artisans and farmers are deprived of rights. They are characterized only by the base, sensual part of the soul and the virtue of moderation and obedience.

The goal of this state, according to Plato, is the approach to the highest idea of the good; it is carried out mainly through education, which is especially important.

Education, says Plato, must be organized by the state and correspond to the interests of the dominant groups - philosophers and warriors. In his pedagogical system, Plato strove to combine into a single system the features of Spartan and Athenian education that satisfied his ideas.

Children from 3 to 6 years old, under the guidance of state-appointed educators, play games on the playgrounds. Plato attached great importance to play as a means of raising young children, as well as to the careful choice of material for telling children. He was a supporter of social education of children from a very young age.

From 7 to 12 years old, children attend a public school, where they learn reading, writing, counting, music and singing, from 12 to 16 years old - a physical education school-palestra with ordinary gymnastic exercises. After the palestra, young men under 18 study arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, mainly for practical purposes (to train warriors). From 18 to 20 years old - ephebia, that is, military gymnastic training. From the age of 20, young men who have not shown a propensity for mental pursuits become warriors. A minority of young men who have shown the ability for abstract thinking goes through the third, higher level of education until the age of 30, studying philosophy, as well as arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music theory, but already in the philosophical and theoretical terms. They are preparing for government positions. Few who have shown exceptional talents continue their philosophical education for another 5 years (up to 35 years of age), after which they become rulers of the state from 35 to 50 years old.

Plato believes that the upbringing of women should be similar to the way it was in Sparta.

All education in Plato's system is built on a deep contempt for physical labor, future philosophers and warriors are forbidden to "even think about it." Children of slaves are not allowed to be educated.

Plato expressed a number of important thoughts about preschool education, about a consistent state education system, put forward the demand for education through a positive example, etc.

Aristotle (884-322 BC), a student of Plato, educator of Alexander the Great, was the greatest philosopher and scientist of Ancient Greece. F. Engels wrote: "The ancient Greek philosophers were all natural born, spontaneous dialecticians, and Aristotle, the most universal head among them, had already investigated the essential forms of dialectical thinking" (K. Marx and F. Engels Soch., Vol. 20, p. 19) ...

V. I. Lenin emphasized that Aristotle "everywhere, at every step raises the question of dialectics" (Lenin V. I. Poln. Sobr. Soch., Vol. 29, p. 326), that Aristotle approaches materialism.

In contrast to his teacher Plato, who divided the world into the world of ideas and the world of phenomena, Aristotle recognized that the world is one and the ideas of things are inseparable from the things themselves. The idea, according to Aristotle, can be likened to a form. In any object, we can distinguish between substance and form. In matter there are possibilities of things; a substance becomes a thing, taking one form or another. So, the substance of marble can become a statue, given a certain shape.

All life is a process of development, which takes place not under the influence of external forces, but as an internal development. Aristotle did not doubt the reality of the external world and added sensory experience and sensations to the basis of cognition. Errors of cognition occur, according to Aristotle, from false thinking, that is, an incorrect interpretation of sensory experience. It is very important that Aristotle pointed to the unity of form and content and put forward the idea of development.

In man, Aristotle distinguished between body and soul, which exist inseparably, like matter and form. According to Aristotle, there are three types of soul: vegetable, which manifests itself in nutrition and reproduction; an animal that, in addition to the properties of plants, manifests itself in sensations and desires; reasonable, which, in addition to plant and animal properties, is also characterized by thinking or cognition. In man, the animal part of the soul, since it is subordinated to reason, can be called volitional.

Three types of soul, according to Aristotle, correspond to three sides of upbringing: physical, moral and mental. The purpose of education, in his opinion, is to develop the higher sides of the soul - reasonable and strong-willed. As in every substance lies the possibility of development, so nature gives to man only the embryo of abilities; the possibility of development is carried out by education. Nature has closely linked the three types of soul, and in education we must follow nature, closely linking physical, moral and mental education.

The state, according to Aristotle, as a whole has one ultimate goal - for all citizens, an identical upbringing is needed, and the concern for this upbringing should be the concern of the state, and not a matter of private initiative. Family and social education should be interconnected. Aristotle did not mean slaves when he said that the state should take care of an identical upbringing.

Summarizing the historical experience of mankind, Aristotle established an age periodization and divided the life of a growing person into three periods: 1) up to 7 years, 2) from 7 to 14 years (the onset of puberty) and 3) from the onset of puberty to 21 years. In his opinion, this periodization corresponds to human nature.

Aristotle gave a number of recommendations for family education. Children up to 7 years old are brought up in a family. It is necessary to feed the child with food appropriate for his age, ensure the hygiene of movements and the gradual hardening of the child. From the age of 7, boys must attend public schools.

Physical education precedes mental education. Boys must first be placed in the hands of gymnastics teachers; but at the same time, children should not be overly tired until the body is stronger, only light exercises are permissible. Aristotle believed that physical, moral and mental education are interrelated. During primary education, in addition to gymnastics, one should, in his opinion, teach reading, writing, grammar, drawing and music. Young men should receive a serious education at school: study literature, history, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, music. Music must be studied for the development of a sense of beauty, making sure that the practice of music, like drawing, does not pursue professional goals. Women, whose nature, according to Aristotle, is different from the nature of men, do not receive the same education as they do.

In the field of moral education, Aristotle, who put forward a volitional, active principle in his philosophy, attached great importance to moral skills and exercises in moral actions. Natural inclinations, development of skills (habituation, frequent repetition of desirable actions) and reason - these are the three sources of moral education.

Developing virtue requires deliberate exercises that form habits and moral skills. In any desire and activity, according to Aristotle, there may be a lack, excess and middle. And in everything there is only the middle, only balance is good and useful. Hence, virtue is behavior that avoids the extremes of both excess and lack. This behavior should be practiced. Aristotle, in contrast to Plato, believed that the family is not removed from education, it is mainly concerned with moral education.

Aristotle's views greatly influenced the development of ancient pedagogy. However, in the Middle Ages, when Aristotle's philosophy was very popular, “priesthood killed the living in Aristotle and perpetuated the dead” (Lenin V. I. Poln. Sobr. Soch., Vol. 29, p. 325).

The pinnacle of ancient Greek philosophy is the views of the outstanding materialist philosopher Democritus (460-370 BC), the creator of the atomistic theory. In his writings, he pays much attention to the issues of education, turns to the laws of nature, to genuine knowledge that destroys superstition and fear. He rejects belief in gods, believing that "the will of the gods" is only an invention, the imagination of people.

Democritus was one of the first to raise the question of the conformity of education to nature. "Nature and nurture are similar," he wrote. Democritus pointed out that "the teaching develops beautiful things only on the basis of labor", emphasized the enormous role of labor in education and demanded "constant work, which is made easier by habit to it." He warned against a bad example and considered it very important to exercise in moral deeds.

Democritus awakened a critical attitude to the slave-owning foundations, called for a real knowledge of nature, for the combination of education with labor.

Education and school in Ancient Rome. In republican Rome, slavery grew; the accumulation of wealth led to the stratification of the population, which led to the division of schools according to property and nobility of origin into elementary and higher levels - grammar schools, and later schools of orators.

Elementary schools, private and paid, served a certain part of the poor and ignorant free-born population (plebeians), taught reading, writing and counting, and introduced them to the laws of the country. The rich and noble preferred to give their sons an initial education at home.

In grammar schools, also private and paid, the sons of privileged parents studied Latin and Greek, rhetoric (the art of eloquence with some information on literature and history). The development of these schools was caused by the need to master the art of oratory by those who sought to occupy elective leadership positions.

In the last centuries of republican Rome, special schools of rhetoricians (orators) arose, where noble youth for a high fee studied rhetoric, philosophy and jurisprudence, Greek language, mathematics and music, in order to further occupy higher government positions. After the conquest of Greece (II century BC), Greek culture spreads in Rome and the Greek language becomes the language of the nobility.

Since the rise of the Roman Empire, the emperors have transformed grammar schools and schools of rhetoricians into public schools, the task of which was to train officials loyal to the imperial power. The emperors sought to turn the teachers of these schools into obedient conductors of their policies, for which they were assigned salaries and provided various benefits. They paid particular attention to the schools of rhetoricians.

The origin of education, its formation

Addressing the problem of the origin of upbringing is not only conditioned by the logic of scientific knowledge, but also productively, at least in two respects: first, it helps to imagine and understand the essence of upbringing in the reality of concrete historical events; secondly, understanding this problem allows one to take a broader look at the arsenal of pedagogical tools that has become so familiar.

The social function of upbringing consists in the deliberate and purposeful transfer of social and historical experience to the younger generation, in mastering practical labor skills, as well as developed moral norms and experience of behavior. Without this, the subsequent development of society is impossible. Re-nutrition is, therefore, an organic part of general social development and is inseparable from the entire history of human society.

The most important source of study of the origin of man, the earliest stages of his history are materials from archaeological excavations. The restoration of historical and cultural processes that took place in the early stages of human history is based primarily on the use of ethnographic data, which collects and describes objects and phenomena of the material and spiritual culture of different peoples. Of particular importance in this case are the works of scientists and travelers of the 18th-19th - early 20th centuries, who described the life and life of the aboriginal peoples of Australia, the islands of Polynesia, the Far East, the interior regions of Siberia, Indian tribes of South and North America, etc. the primitive stage of development .. Paradoxically, but in the conditions of the modern post-industrial era, oases remain, untouched by civilization. Ethnographic parallels allow, by analogy, to reconstruct some important historical and cultural phenomena of the primitive era.

In the depths of national memory, age-old customs and traditions, including pedagogical ones, are recorded in the form of various samples of oral folk art: songs, fairy tales, legends, epics, sayings, etc. These forms of people's memory go back to the ancient layers of culture, in which the eternal wisdom of national education is also concentrated. The pedagogical thought and educational traditions of each nation reflect the diverse history of its spiritual and moral life, are an important help in restoring the general picture of education in the most ancient periods of human history.

When considering the issue of the origin of upbringing in Soviet historical and pedagogical literature, criticism of such concepts of the origin of upbringing as evolutionary-biological (C. Letourneau, J. Simpson, A. Espinas), which brings the educational activity of people of primitive society closer to that observed in the higher animals by instinctive concern for their offspring, or psychological (P. Monroe), explaining the origin of upbringing inherent in children by an instinctive-unconscious desire to imitate adults.

Without in any way denying the existence of a certain continuity between the forms of organization of the rational activity of some higher animals and man, one can hardly agree with those researchers who believe that the difference between an animal and a man can be reduced to quantitative characteristics. They reason something like this: if a person makes and uses tools, then some animals also show the rudiments of the skills of making them; people build dwellings, dams - and beavers create similar structures, etc. In such reasoning, the qualitative differences between man and the animal world are lost, it is not taken into account that quantitative changes in this case turned into qualitative ones, which caused a break in gradualness, a jump from animal to man and the fundamental difference in the manifestations of their activities.

Education in a primitive society.

At the first stage of development of a primitive society - in a prenatal society - people appropriated the finished products of nature and hunted. The process of obtaining livelihoods was in its own way uncomplicated and at the same time laborious. Hunting for large animals, a hard struggle with nature could only be carried out in conditions of collective forms of life, labor and consumption. Everything was common, there were no social differences between the members of the collective.

The boys participated with adult men in hunting and fishing, in the manufacture of weapons; the girls, under the leadership of women, gathered and grew crops, cooked food, made dishes and clothes.

At the last stages of development of matriarchy, the first institutions appeared for the life and education of growing people - houses of youth, separate for boys and girls, where, under the guidance of the elders of the clan, they prepared for life, work, "initiations".

As a result of further development, the tribal community became a "self-governing, armed organization" (F. Engels). The rudiments of military education appeared: boys learned to shoot a bow, use a spear, ride a horse, etc. A clear internal organization appeared in age groups, leaders emerged, the program of "initiations" became more complicated, for which specially selected elders of the clan prepared young people. Began to pay more attention to the assimilation of the rudiments of knowledge, and with the advent of writing and writing.