Apprenticeship Education

Question 1

Slaves may care for young
children

Answer 1

• Nutrix (wet nurse)
• Contracts from Roman
  Egypt, e.g.
• Can be strong affective
  bonds
• Tombstones
• Nero

Question 2

Paedagogus

Answer 2

Slave teacher/minder for
children. Teach reading/writing to wealthy children

Question 3

alimenta program
(Nerva and Trajan)

Answer 3

Support poor citizen families to raise children rather than expose them

Question 4

Formal apprenticeship in crafts and trades

Answer 4

• age 12 to start apprenticeships
• Long hours
• Contracts survive in Egypt (papyri)
• Some slaves are apprenticed
• Slave children should be productive by age 5 or 10

Question 5

Slaves may learn to read and write

Answer 5

Much clerical work done by slaves. Including secretaries, scribes, readers, accountants

Question 6

Schools

Answer 6

• Fees for school
• No publicly funded education
• Teacher is magister
• Rote learning for reading and math
• Often outdoors

Question 7

Rhetoric/oratory: mid to late teens

Answer 7

• Practice speeches
• Suasoriae (persuasion)
• Controversiae (legal situations)
• Very expensive!
• High salaries for teachers of
  oratory

Question 8

Girls and education

Answer 8

• Many rich girls get literary
  education
• Educated mothers valued
• Cornelia, mother of the
  Gracchi
• Don’t need rhetorical
  education
• A few writings by women
  survive
• e.g. love poet Sulpicia