capitalism

Education 141
instruction. A sizable portion of the public in modern
democracies views the goals of a good educational system
as comprising the following: all children should have
access to education regardless of income, schools should
foster community harmony, schools should encourage
parental involvement and responsibility, and schools
should promote understanding of and participation in the
democratic process.
Historically, systems of formal education have often taken
shape through a gradual, evolutionary process. As economies
have grown and trade has expanded, literacy has become
increasingly valuable and parents are better able to do without
their children’s labor. These developments have provided
both the incentive and the opportunity for education.
One of the earliest cases of formal education directed
beyond a small ruling elite was found in the Greek citystate
of Athens during the early 5th century B.C. The prevailing
view of the role of women and the institution of
slavery both contributed to the fact that only free male
children were formally educated. Of the eligible child
population, the majority attended school for at least a few
years. Both elementary and advanced instruction was
offered by independent teachers who competed with one
another to attract students. Tuition was sufficiently modest
as to make education affordable to all but the destitute,
although poor children generally attended school for
fewer years than their wealthier fellows. Government
played no role in the provision, funding, or regulation of
education in Athens.
The sophistication, scope, and diversity of Athenian
education grew over the course of the 5th century, and at
least one school for girls was opened in the latter half of
that century by the philosopher Aspasia. By the last decades
of the 4th century, the education of girls had become commonplace
throughout the Greek-speaking world. It is not
possible to draw too many conclusions regarding the pedagogical
system adopted in Athens, but it can be said that,
during its height, Athens was the most literate, the most
economically successful, and one of the most culturally
vibrant societies of its time.
Education under the Roman republic of the late 2nd century
B.C. was structured similarly to that in classical Athens.
Cicero wrote, “Our people have never wished to have any
system of education for the free-born youth which is either
definitely fixed by law, or officially established, or uniform
in all cases.” The most notable difference between the two
systems was that Roman teachers were usually Greek
slaves, whereas teachers in classical Athens had generally
been free individuals. The educational control that parents
enjoyed in Rome was gradually chipped away as the
Republic gave way to the Empire in the 40s and 30s B.C.
With the ascension of each new emperor, additional
restrictions were placed on what could be taught and who
could teach. Imperial authorities also began to offer sporadic
subsidies to teachers during the 1st century A.D., particularly
to those who spoke well of the imperial leadership and
supported its policies.
With the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in
the 6th century, mass education disappeared in Europe,
although isolated pockets of scholarship continued to exist,
particularly around monasteries. However, just as popular
literacy and learning were disappearing in the West, they
began to take root in the East. By the 8th century, a vigorous
market in education served families in Arab-controlled
areas from northwestern India to northwestern Africa and
across the Mediterranean. There existed no systematic government
regulation, provision, or funding of the market in
education, although many schools were privately subsidized,
thus broadening access to education. For several centuries,
the Muslim world enjoyed a level of literacy at least
the equal of anything that had gone before. In poetry and
philosophy it was immensely prolific, and in the sciences it
was unsurpassed. As one historian has observed, however,
the vibrancy of this educational system began to wane in
the 11th century, when schools fell under increasing state
control and were transformed into tools for promoting narrow
political and religious aims.
The 14th-century European Renaissance had only a
slight effect on the education of the great majority of the
public, and it was not until the 16th century that literacy
began to again extend beyond the ruling elite. Certainly the
invention of movable type and the commercialization of the
book industry did much to increase literary throughout
Europe. Literacy in the German states was among the highest
in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, although
its growth was at times impeded by the divergent goals of
the nobility and the common people. The nobles subsidized
the education of a Latin-speaking bureaucracy, whereas the
masses of the people chiefly sought education in their
mother tongue.
In England and the United States, near-universal literacy
was achieved by the mid-19th century. Up to that point,
education in both nations chiefly operated as a free, competitive
enterprise, with only limited government provision
or funding. However, the latter half of the 19th century
marked the rise of fully tax-funded state-run school systems.
Scholars have shown that total enrollment rates were
largely unaffected by this transformation, although the
combination of increasing education taxes and decreasing
government school tuition (which eventually fell to zero)
was followed by a significant shift of students from the private
to the government sector.
The effects of this shift from market to state provisioning
of educational services are in considerable dispute.
Critics of state schooling argue that student achievement
has stagnated or declined; parental choice, control, and
involvement have diminished; efficiency has fallen and
costs risen; and that community conflicts over the content