Athenian schoolboys have at least their full share of idleness, as well as of animal spirits.  There is soon a loud whisper from one corner.  Instantly the ruling tyrant rises.  “Antiphon!  I have heard you.  Come forward!” If Antiphon is wise, he will advance promptly and submit as cheerfully as possible to a sound caning; if folly possesses him, he will hesitate.  At a nod from the master two older boys, who serve as monitors, will seize him with grim chuckles.  He will then be fortunate if he escapes being tied to a post and flogged until his back is one mass of welts, and his very life seems in danger.  It will be useless for him to complain to his parents.  A good schoolmaster is supposed to flog frequently to earn his pay; if he is sparing with the rod or lash, he is probably lacking in energy.  Boys will be boys, and there is only one remedy for juvenile shortcomings.

This diversion, of course, with its attendant howling, interrupts the course of the school, but presently matters again become normal.  The scholars are so few that probably there is only one teacher, and instruction is decidedly “individual,” although poetry and singing are very likely taught “in concert.”

55.  The School Curriculum.—­As to the subjects studied, the Athenian curriculum is well fixed and limited:  letters, music, and gymnastics.  Every lad must have a certain amount of all of these.  They gymnastics will be taught later in the day by a special teacher at a “wrestling school.”  The “music” may also be taught separately.  The main effort with a young boy is surely to teach him to read and write.  And here must be recalled the relative infrequency of complete books in classic Athens.[*] To read public placards, inscriptions of laws, occasional epistles, commercial documents, etc., is probably, for many Athenians, reading enough.  The great poets he will learn by ear rather than by eye; and he may go through a long and respected life and never be compelled to read a really sizable volume from end to end.  So the teaching of reading is along very simple lines.  It is perhaps simultaneous with the learning of writing.  The twenty-four letters are learned by sheer power of memory; then the master sets lines upon the tablets to be copied.  As soon as possible the boy is put to learning and writing down passages from the great poets.  Progress in mere literacy is very rapid.  There is no waste of time on history, geography, or physical science; and between the concentration on a singly main subject and the impetus given by the master’s rod the Athenian schoolboy soon becomes adept with his letters.  Possibly a little arithmetic is taught him, but only a little.  In later life, if he does not become a trader or banker, he will not be ashamed to reckon simple sums upon his fingers or by means of pebbles; although if his father is ambitious to have him become a philosopher, he may have him taught something of geometry.