Peter Jones

Quintilian on Michael Gove

issue 30 March 2013

One hundred professors have complained that Michael Gove’s new curriculum will stifle children’s ‘creativity’ because they will have to learn things. How very true!

The Roman educationist Quintilian (c. AD 35–100) argued that memory was the surest sign of a child’s ability. So when Cicero said that the purpose of education was to ‘exercise the brain, sharpen the wits and give quick intuition’, he must have been having a laugh. How could an education dependent on memory possibly do that? Anyway, the baleful results can be seen all round the ancient world, from the consul Lucius Scipio, who knew the name of every Roman citizen, to Mithradates, who addressed his subjects in 22 languages, and the Athenian soldiers captured by Syracusans who won their freedom by reciting Euripides from memory.

Pathetic, isn’t it? No wonder renowned thickos like Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, Euclid, Sophocles, Hippocrates, Tacitus, Marcus Aurelius and so on never had an original thought in their lives, poor dears.

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