Quintilian on education
From his Instutio Oratoria (around 95 AD)
- The Young Child
"The child who is not yet old enough to love his studies should not be allowed to come to hate them. His studies must be made an amusement."
- Home Tutors v School
"The broad daylight of a respectable school is preferable to the solitude and obscurity of a private education."
- Teaching Methods
"Vessels with narrow mouths will not receive liquids if too much is poured into them."
- Discipline
"Study depends on the good will of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion."
"Flogging is a disgraceful form of punishment fit only for slaves ... young children are helpless and easily victimised, and therefore no one should have unlimited power over them."
- Games
"It is the nature of young things to play ... a boy who is in a continual state of depression is never likely to show alertness in his work."
- The Teacher
"The teacher should be strict but not severe, genial but not familiar."
"He must control his anger, making continuous but not extravagant demands on his class, and probe with questions those who sit in silence in the hope of escaping his eye."
