In the word pedagogy you recognize the Greek word peediá, which means: children. The origins of pedagogy can be found in ancient Greece. Of course, pedagogy is timeless. You can say that “where there are children, there are parents, where there are parents and children there is education. It is the Greek thinkers who first put their ideas about education in writing.
Aristotle
After Plato, Aristotle was one of the great philosophers on education. He mainly opposed the Spartan upbringing, which he found inhumane and mainly aimed at maintaining an oppressive upper class.
A Spartan upbringing
In ancient Sparta, a city-state in ancient Greece, they had a very special way of raising children. In Sparta, a few centuries before our era, two types of children lived. The children of slaves and serfs, who were actually born into slavery. These children had to be at the service of the owner as quickly as possible. They had to become house slaves or land slaves as quickly as possible. House slaves (usually girls) had to help with the housework. Land slaves were used as agricultural laborers. Then you had the children of the bourgeoisie. These children were raised to defend and grow the city-state. The Spartans had a very special method for this. At the age of seven, all children of the bourgeoisie were sent to boarding schools. Mothers said goodbye to their children because they knew they would probably never see their children again. In these boarding schools the children were hardened with discipline and discipline. They were all taught combat techniques and warfare. A small number were chosen to become athletes, some were allowed to join small scientific groups. The most famous is the group of the mathematician Pythagoras. The Spartan athletes also made themselves felt. Many of them became Olympic champions at the ancient Greek Olympic games.
The vast majority of children simply became soldiers. After their (short) training in combat and war, they had to form gangs and in this way they were educated in independence and self-reliance. They were sent out of the city in the gangs, into the countryside and into the wilderness.
They were given no food, no weapons or other equipment, they had to fend for themselves. They were indeed gangs: they were forced to keep themselves alive. By what they found in nature, by robbing and plundering, by fighting and battling with other gangs. In this way the boys learned to become accustomed to hunger and deprivation and learned to survive under all circumstances. This hard training seemed like a permanent survival journey. An important aspect was becoming accustomed to group solidarity. In the gangs the members were completely dependent on each other. Because of the dangers, they always had to rely on each other and there was no other option than to work together, help each other and be responsible for each other. In this way the boys became familiar with community life and the pervasive communal norms and values of Spartan society. The cadaver discipline prepared them mentally and physically for the defense of the City State of Sparta. From historical sources we know that the Spartan army was the most formidable army of that time. Ruthless, fighting to the death, fanatical are the most common descriptions of the army. Even today, we still speak of a “Spartan education” when we mean a strict and disciplined education.
However, Aristotle stands in the shadow of his great predecessor Plato. Yet he has formulated a remarkable view on parenting. That is why he fits in with the great philosophers here. Unlike his contemporaries, who were looking for the material, think of the atomic theory of Demokritos, Aristotle looked for a way to educate the children of the bourgeoisie in non-material norms and values.
Causes
He described these norms and values in terms of causes. Aristotle wondered how we could understand or explain the origin, existence or change of existence. In other words. He wondered why people are born, develop, change, live and finally die. But especially how we can influence this.
He distinguished 4 causes
- Dust cause
- Form cause
- Work cause
- Final cause
First an example to clarify the causes
The source of dust in the statue of Andre Hazes is the stone from which the sculpture was carved. The shape of the statue, it resembles Andre Hazes, is the Form Cause . The person who made the statue, the sculptor, is the working cause and the final cause is to never forget and remember the singer.
In general, you can say that everything comes from somewhere or is made of something, has its own shape or form, that someone has given the shape and everything has a function or a purpose .
What about humans then?
Let’s see whether Aristotle’s theory of causes also applies to humans and whether we play a role in it.
Dust cause of man
Physically and biologically speaking, man consists of a bag, which we call skin, and this bag holds the organs, bones, blood, veins, nerves and all that kind of stuff together. The organs, bones, blood, etc. consist of water, salts, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, etc. Clearly a cause of dust.
Form cause of man
It is clear that a human being is born as a human being. If all goes well with two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes, two hands, two feet, not to forget a head. The nice thing about humans is that they actually constantly change shape. He grows, becomes smarter, starts to babble, and that babbling later becomes words and sentences.
Final cause of man
Everyone who is born will later have a function in society. As a doctor, diplomat, schoolteacher, plumber and above all as a part of society. One of the goals is to maintain the (sub)culture.
Work cause of man
The one who ensures and ensures that people can develop, learn, change. Summarized in one word: the educators or pedagogues.
This shows that Aristotle’s theory of causes is still applicable to contemporary times. In fact, each of us is a part or a cause of it. Each of us is at some point the agent of human change. Parents when the child is still very small, teachers when the child goes to school, youth care when parents cannot cope on their own, carers for the disabled if a different cause is required due to an abnormal form cause, elderly carers for the aging person because, as you know, diseases and infirmities with age. Each of us will soon have a specific pedagogical assignment in our work. Each of us will then have to have insight into and knowledge of our own educational task and the associated final cause.