Familiar Classical Education

Time is the most stringent testing, said the pastor. stephen tong in one sermon. in line with the dictum, then when we find in the history of the case that tested for a very long period, it is fitting for us to learn it. in the field of education, a system that has been tested for more than 2000 years is a classic education ( classical education ). ranging from curriculum ἐ ;γ ;κ ;ύ ;κ ;λ ;ι ;ο ;ς ; π ;α ;ι ;δ ;ε ;ί ;α ; ( enkyklios paideia ) classical greek education, liberal roman artes of education, adaptation in the christian education at the time of the church fathers and rebirth in the renaissance, even to the western education system in the enlightenment, classical education has a solid basic education system to establish and develop the humanity of human culture. but unfortunately, classical education has been deemed archaic and marginalized by modern education that emphasizes more economic benefits or political interests.

This article was written with the aim to introduce briefly about classical education and then briefly analyze the advantages and disadvantages from the perspective of reformed theology. is the authors hope that the positive aspects of a classical education can be maintained in the current christian education, as a treasure which the lord god gave to his people in the common grace.

Classical Education Goal

Classical education goals can be summarized by a single latin word, humanity, which means humanity. classical education aims to develop human potential in every aspect abundance so as to contribute to the development of human culture in history. cicero, the great roman orator and educator in republican rome, said, we are all called human, but just who has been educated through learning proper civilization called man ( republic, book i, 28. 5 ). the purpose of education is also emphasized by the classical smus, a christian humanist in the renaissance was the source of inspiration for luther and calvin. he said, it is an indisputable fact that a man who is not trained their minds through philosophy and learning that being healthy is one lower than an animal, because there are no more wild animals or dangerous than a man who swayed to and fro by ambition, lust, anger, envy, or wild character on childrens education,

We would often hear the phrase : you have school, so i could be someone. phrase be someone has a variety of interpretations. most people interpret the phrase be someone from the perspective of financial success : you must go to school, so that the future can work and can be a lot of money. so, according to this interpretation, if we can not achieve financial success, we do not deserve to be called human. but the phrase human being is defined differently by educators in the tradition of classical education. classical education theory says that every human being has a responsibility to develop themselves towards wholeness of humanity.

Emphasis will be on the development of individual potential through the study of human culture, classical education knows no dichotomy between the individual and the community. individuals can only be fully developed within the communities, and communities thrive when individuals develop. this is contrary to the spirit of modern individualism that puts the individual into the community in the competition system. in classical education, the development of individual and community development work in harmony. humanitas is the perfection of humanity in the one individual that resulted in the advancement of culture in the community.

Classical Education In Ancient Greek and Roman Times

In the context of ciceros life, there is debate over the theory of education, the education that emphasizes knowledge with education that emphasizes the ability of speeches. this debate stems from the conflict between socrates with the sophists. for socrates, the ability of rhetoric is not important : what matters is knowledge, which he defined as the correct opinion and can be accounted for ( a justified true belief 1 ). for the sophists, there is no such thing as truth. the most important thing is how to win the public debate in a way to convince people as much as possible in the public consultation through the ability of rhetoric. so the followers of socrates emphasizes philosophy, while the followers of the sophists emphasized rhetoric. this debate lasted for generations to live in the time of cicero.

For cicero, philosophy and rhetoric are two things that can not be separated. humanities education includes two things. philosophy is the kontent, and rhetoric is the container : there must be coherence between the contents of the container. useless if a person understands the truth but can not convince others of the truth. useless too, if someone can convince others, but he himself did not know whether it conveys is true. so, for cicero, education must be intact, include the contents and pewadahannya ( form ). philosophy and rhetoric is very important in education.

However, the interesting part of ciceros view is that the philosophy here is not understood as intellectual ideas are abstract. philosophy, for cicero, are all aspects of the development of human culture, whether literature, history, morals, and ideas. a person who is educated is the one who understands that the best things in human civilization in all its entirety and convincingly able to teach it to others in a public activity. integrity of human formation is called by cicero as humanities education.

Quintilian, a roman another great educator who lived in the time of the roman empire, also stressed that the philosophy and rhetoric can not be separated from one another. for quintilian, it is impossible to be a good orator without having a good human morality. he said, we want students orator is a perfect orator, which certainly is a good man : and then we sue him, not only to be perfect in the ability to speak, but also perfect in every moral virtue ( education orator, preface ). reflected in the moral quality of a person in how people are addressed : belief, speech kontent, as well as the movements of his body. then education must include an orator of the highest sense of moral philosophy. education is the education of an orator who form one humanity, not just polish the outside of a persons abilities in rhetoric.

Classical education is often referred to as the freedom of art education ( liberal arts education ). this thinking comes from plato, who argued that people learn just to meet the economic needs of people who are mentally slaves. slaves to learn to work, and work to earn money. however, for plato, the free learn to acquire knowledge that goes beyond the mere physical needs. from the conception of education that says the phrase liberal arts education is used.

In the early middle ages, classical education standardized by cassiodorus into two parts : basic education called the trivium and quadrivium called further education - collectively referred to as liberal septem artes. trivium cover grammar school ( grammar and literature ), dialectics ( ability to argue with the logic flow right ), and rhetorics ( the ability to deliver elegant argument ). augustine says that rhetoric includes three elements : docere ( teach the truth ), delectare ( conveying beauty ), and movere ( moving someone to a decision-making ). quadrivium included arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. the core of the division of the trivium and quadrivium is that the accuracy and richness of language use is the most important basic capital to advance the fields of other cultures.

Rebirth Classic Education Through The Renaissance Christian Humanist

Classical education was plagued by dark clouds scholasticism in the late middle ages, but rediscovered classical education by the christian humanists in the 15th century ad. humanism is here understood not as an atheistic secular currents that elevates man, but as a movement to revive the sense of humanity of classical education theory. if the scholastics studying various ideas based on the comments about the hereditary thinkers, humanists want to savor the joy of fresh water that emanates directly from the springs of humanity. learning their motto is ad fontes, which means, go to the source. the humanist desire to study the literature of classical greco-roman and revived potential, agility, and the diversity of human thought and culture.

With emphasis on the spirit of ad fontes, the classical education has its own uniqueness in the formation of the curriculum. the uniqueness of classical education curriculum is its emphasis on the historicity of every subject of learning, both trivium and quadrivium. for example, geometry or astronomy learned not only the logical categorization, but also in the perspective of the history of the development of these fields, such as water flowing continuously from its source to the river branches. thus, the students can understand geometry or astronomy as a result of the contribution of many people who are cumulative throughout history to discover mathematical truths or natural.

One is the famous humanist smus of rotterdam. though in his time an emerging spirit of nationalism which sharpens the cultural boundaries between nations, smus chose to become a cosmopolitan : he chose to study a variety of human civilization and wealth would not be confined by the narrowness of knowledge of a nation alone. he wants to be a citizen of the world ( the citizen of the world ).

In his essay on childrens education, de pueris instituendis ( on childrens education ), smus raised the educational ideas of humanity from cicero. smus very concerned about the development of child psychology, the importance of mastery of greek and latin as a child, the importance of moral and exemplary behavior of the parents, and raised many aspects of relational theory buried in scholastic education. for example, smus raised the importance of love in a childs education. he wrote, fear not possible efficacious in education : parents are not even able to train their children with this motif. love must be the effect of the early in the child ; followed and ended with full respect for the trust and affection. all of these result in compliance with the far more certain than education through threats.

In the educational atmosphere is kind of humanist reformers such as luther, zwingli, and calvin grow. they get the blessings of the fruit of smus to study literature directly greco-roman, and of the skills they can learn gods word in the original languages ​ ;​ ;and with a more precise method of interpretation. martin luther wrote in a letter to a german humanist named eobanus hessus, i myself am convinced that without the study of humanity, pure theology may not be able to stand, as has happened throughout history to this day : when learning is weak and broken humanity, theology also dropped and ignored. i realize that there is no understanding of the word of god except the affluent god prepared beforehand awakening understanding and learning languages, just as preparations were made by john the baptist. i would expect... the resurrection of poets and orators, because i realized that only through learning that so people are prepared to understand the remarkable sacred truths, and also to apply it skillfully and successfully.

For the humanist, there is no contradiction between love for god and love for man, and between christ and culture. genuine love for god expressed in love for humans. exalt christ means in the pursuit of perfection in human culture within the framework of the sense of gods kingdom. if educators raise the scholastic sense of logic and deductive analysis of human abilities, humanist educators summarizes educational purposes as sapiens atque eloquens pietas ( piety wise and beautiful ) centered on the formation of the whole humanity.

Twilight Classical Education

This humanist education, in all its application limitations, continues to grow, until the reality of the industrial revolution discredit its existence. industrial revolution requires a lot of labor that is ready to run the machines, and economic pressures led many people to learn that they can be factory workers. vocational education emerged as an answer to those needs. in developing countries, is honored by the engineering department and the government is required by the manufacturer, so it is considered more important than the establishment of a whole human being as in humanities education. but karl marx saw crime dehumanization of capitalism like this. humans are no longer regarded as human, but as the owners of capital to increase capital gains. many people trapped in the factory and separated from their natural potential to develop a wealth of human culture. in such a situation, not many people are aware that they have lost the dignity of humanity. they are stuck in the economic system and thus do not realize that man shall not live by bread alone. this makes it difficult to develop a classical education at the present time. classical education that aims to humanize humans eventually buried by pragmatism ruled of humanity.

Theological Analysis Of The Goal Classical Education

Theory has a classical education in the history of the endurance test because it contains many elements of the theory of common grace ( common grace ) in it. classical education emphasis on humanity, harmony between the individual and the community, attention to the development of human culture : these are all the good things that god wants in his creation.

The word of god says that man is the image and likeness of god, with the creation of the highest glory of god that surpasses all other creatures. human potential is given by god to develop the intellectual, aesthetic, and ethical. intellectually, human beings are given the capacity and thirst for pursuing the truth ( truth ). in aesthetics, human beings are given the capacity and thirst for the pursuit of beauty ( beauty ). in ethics, human thirst for a given capacity and pursue goodness ( goodness ). truth, beauty, and goodness are three transcendental aspects that can only be found in god. when human pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, humans actualize their potential and get the highest enjoyment. fathers like augustine who said, you made us for yourself thee, oh lord, and our hearts are constantly restless until we find rest in thee ( confessions, book i ). christian education is not limited to worldly interests, but lead to god himself as the truth, the beauty, and the goodness. and humanitys true we can only get in christ, god made flesh, and bring us to the father.

Education which emphasizes the humanity as a whole is better than the education that emphasizes only one side of human life ( eg, such as the emphasis on the intellectual aspects of education only version platonic or scholastic ). the lord god created the human soul that has a tri-functional cognition ( understanding ), affection ( feelings ), and volition ( the will ), which all three can not be separated from one another. g. i. williamson, in his description of the westminster shorter catechism, connecting the tri-functions of the human soul with the functions of prophet, priest, and king in the reformed theology. when the function of cognition are emphasized in education, then education is going through dehumanization, because pressing the other aspects of the human soul as the image of god.

Emphasis on the humanities also make human learning are universal and not fragmented by nationalism, politics, race, or economic status. this contrasts with the educational perspective of critical pedagogy ( critical pedagogy ) developed by a marxist thinker and educator, paulo freire, in the 20th century. freire wrote a famous educational book entitled pedagogy of the oppressed ( the pedagogy of the oppressed ). in it, freire too stressed that any political knowledge, controlled by the dynamics of class conflict in the dialectic between the oppressor system ( the oppressor ) and the oppressed ( the oppressed ). with the emphasis that knowledge is power ( knowledge is power ), each subject learning will be viewed with suspicion repressive actions of the teacher. with such a spirit, learning loses its universality and reduced the power play. yet the bible teaches that god revealed the truth to every man, both christian and non-christian, even if every person responds the truths god has revealed differently. in the christian perspective, objectivity of truth that transcends human power plays. 1 +1 = 2 is true, even if taught by colonists and by the oppressed.

When god created man, man as the image of god also created to live as different individuals, but in harmony with one another. the lord god says that no good man that lives by himself alone ( genesis 2 :18 ). each individual grow well only if the individual is to grow in the community, and the community can only thrive when the individuals in it to grow well. individuals are not swallowed up in the community such as the concept of platos republic is authoritarianism, and the community is also not ignored as in the life of modern individualism that is autonomous and independent from the enlightenment.

In terms of cultural development, in contrast to the classical education of modern education is likely to insult the important things in the history of culture. the word old ( short for antiquity ) in popular language has a negative connotation, used to scoff at those who do not keep up with the times. modern humans assume that history is always evolving with progressive, whereas the changes in the history of may be progressive or regressive. darwinism has become worldview ( worldview ) that assume that new is always better than the old one. in fact, even solomon in ecclesiastes teaches that it is often seen cyclical changes in the culture, because humans repeat-ngulang error occurred in history. new or old can not be a criterion of truth.

But appreciate the traditions of classical education because of past classical education to learn from past mistakes and want to build a better future. this principle is in line with the principle of reform reformata ecclesia semper reformanda, which means the reformed church is always reforming. critics of the self is not perfect, to evolve towards perfection, is a biblical principle, since god also wants us perfection, god works in all things for the good of those who love god, to be conformed to the image of his son.

Cover

This article has discussed with a brief glimpse of the history of classical education and lifting some positive things that should be maintained in the christian education. positive things that make a classical education last a long time in history. when compared with modern education that reduces humans, tend to be pragmatic and too many fragmented by politics, is superior to the classical education will penakanannya humanity. however, we also need to be aware of the tendency spirit of the tower of babel that idolizing human beings in classical education.

Posted in: Ed