How to Create the Ideal Son: The unhidden curriculum in pseudo-Plutarch On the Training of Children

Abstract

This article enquires into the curriculum advocated in the only ancient Greek treatise concerning education that has survived in its entirety, entitled On the Training of Children. The treatise was highly influential in Europe from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, and thus exhibits certain assumptions concerning the purpose of curriculum that lie behind the development of western education and may still be influential today. The inquiry is conducted in three stages: the intended recipients of the curriculum are identified; its elements are enumerated and evaluated; and its aims are inferred from the text. I conclude that the curriculum was intended for wealthy, privileged boys, that philosophy (though not independent theorising) was the most valued subject of study and that the aim of the curriculum was to instil in the recipients aristocratic values and modes of behaviour. Finally, some topics are suggested for reflection, in response to these conclusions, upon existing curricula.

Keywords:

• curriculum
• Greek
• philosophy
• Plutarch
• humanist
• values

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Prof. G.H.R. Horsley and Dr K. McQueen of the University of New England, Australia, both of whom offered valuable suggestions for the improvement of this paper.