Latin ways

A quite interesting essay from Down Under about the Jesuit mode of education in the Early Modern Era, and its possible application to the present:

A Jesuit education culminated, ideally, in the higher study of philosophy, science and theology, but students (all boys) had to pass through a series of graded lower classes in literature and rhetoric. Well into the 18th century this lower curriculum prescribed the study of the ancient languages, the reading of the pagan classics and, above all, the active production of elegant and effective Latin verse and prose.

There is a good deal of documentary evidence for what went on in the early modern Jesuit classroom.

The sources reveal a high-pressured environment, but not an excessively punitive one.

Jesuit teachers were bound to follow a meticulously researched Ratio Studiorum, or code of studies, which was put out in its definitive form in 1599 after international consultation and in-school testing. The ratio was no bald list of prescribed texts and expected outcomes. It enshrined the Jesuit philosophy of education. Successive versions of this policy document reveal that the reason for teaching pagan classics to Christian boys was the fostering of two qualities highly prized by the Society of Jesus: competition and creativity.

The early modern Jesuit classroom was a literary sporting arena, which saw regular intra-class and inter-class competitions. Indeed, boys would be assigned a personal rival with whom to duel, and were encouraged to point out one another's mistakes. There was division into ranked teams of 10 (decuriae), and further into class camps, with monthly contests for promotion and demotion of so-called dictators, praetors, tribunes, and senators.

If it all sounds rather militaristic, we should bear in mind that students were at the centre of this fast-paced learning. The teacher's role was to channel the boys' high spirits and rivalry, to correct exercises, to moderate and confer praise.

Students collaborated in the correction of classwork, and competed energetically in using and reusing the classical models, relating them in often ingenious ways to their own experience.

An 18th century anthology of student verse includes a sequence of myths to explain the origins of fencing, bombs, musical organs, tapestries, mirrors, hair ornaments, wigs and beauty spots, and another sequence of poems on sports and games, including badminton, tennis, billiards, chess and snakes and ladders.