In an era when students sought out educators rather than being assigned them like numbers in a lottery, finding a good teacher was of paramount importance. This was certainly true in Ancient Rome, where the association a young man (and his family) established with a teacher would not only shape his education but social networks and reputation too. Likewise, a capable, reputable teacher could build a sufficient coterie of pupils – and, if really successful, his own school – to earn an enviable livelihood.
As the classical movement grows in Australia, one of its remarkable characteristics is the manifold forms in which liberal arts education is taking place. The top-down approach is yet to bear any fruit; instead, we witness bourgeoning parent-led school communities and homeschooling efforts. One small-scale but comparatively simple and efficient model is the tutoring school, such as The Classical School in Mount Lawley, Western Australia (https://www.theclassicalschool.com.au/), where, as in the ancient Mediterranean world, students and their parents find the teacher best suited to them. There is considerable untaped potential here for both homeschoolers and those seeking an alternative means of exposing their children to classical learning. There may even be room for building a database of classical tutors throughout Australia who could work at their local level or (less favourably) online with small groups of students.
This puts the emphasis back on the quality of the teacher’s teaching and explicitly demands attention be squarely fixed on the issue (one that commonly remains in the background of mainstream schooling): What makes a good teacher? In any rich educational marketplace, it will be such a teacher who, justly, is able to garner students. To start us upon the road for an answer to this question, we can turn to Quintilian, that famous Roman rhetorician and theorist, who provides a fairly decent outline of what constitutes a good teacher in his Institutio Oratio (c. AD 95).
“Good character”
For Quintilian, a principal concern in education is “whether the teacher is of good character”. (Inst. Ora. 2.2.1) This is especially pertinent during childhood or when the student is transitioning into adolescence as at this time they are singularly impressionable. The character of the teacher ought to be pure and honest; he must be free from vices and able to exhibit self-control to set a fine example and not corrupt the young minds in his care. In addition to inner rectitude, he should not flinch in disciplining students and reign in any wild, unchecked behaviour, instilling virtuous habits in their place. This task is so significant because the teacher is in loco parentis: “Let him therefore adopt a parental attitude to his pupils, and regard himself as the representative of those who have committed their children to his charge.” (Inst. Ora. 2.2.5)
That Quintilian devotes much space to discussing the character of a good teacher shouldn’t surprise us in a culture when education was just as much about moral formation as it was about the intellectual virtues, and where the relationship between teachers and students was decidedly intimate. Contemporary Australian society seems content with teachers basically behaving themselves in the classroom and keeping their private lives – specifically, the sordid bits! – out of it. They are, within reason, to obey the law and not evidence anything that could endanger a young person.
This is well and good, yet surely quite a low bar. What Quintilian says about young people imitating their teachers remains true today, so we should probably expect more from them. If teaching is a vocation and not simply a profession, it calls for a high degree of moral integrity, a noble soul and an upstanding sense of citizenry duty. Parents should require this from teachers because, like it or not, their children will form close relationships with them.
Building a relationship with students
When relating to students, teachers should consider themselves to be like good parents: authoritative but not authoritarian, strict but not be overbearing (able to control one’s anger), amiable and sympathetic but not chummy. The praise and correction offered to students should similarly be tempered, done honestly, with restraint and without sarcasm or abuse. In all things, then, the teacher aims to have a measured sense of order in individual relationships and with the class as a whole, dampening the rambunctious nature of the young and insisting on quiet attention before engaging in lessons. A wise teacher would do well to follow this advice: “For the master should not speak to suit his pupil's standard, but they should speak to suit his.” (Inst. Ora. 2.2.13)
In the course of education, parents ought to search for the best and most eminent teachers possible for their children, even when one less demanding might seem more amenable to younger pupils; however, this is ultimately to their detriment as they will not be challenged to excel. (Inst. Ora. 2.3.1-2)
A firm but fair teacher will inspire students to “love their masters not less than their studies, and should regard them as the parents not indeed of their bodies but of their minds”. (Inst. Ora. 2.9.1) Fostering this relationship is central to the learning enterprise: there is a mutual obligation for the teacher to teach and the student to be teachable, not merely in the realm of the intellect but equally a matter of the will.
Quintilian clearly understands that the good teacher will only be effective – only truly be good – if his virtues can be impressed on the students set before him. Moderation appears to be the key in both praise and punishment, and his approach is reflective of Aristotle’s broader pedagogical principles. Australian teachers need to be supported in fostering relationships and handling misbehaviour when they encounter it in the classroom. Although a restorative approach to behaviour management no doubt has a role to play in this, teachers also require disciplinary tools (including severe ones) to achieve their goal of guiding children to live more virtuous lives. In fact, a neglect of this issue is driving teachers out of the profession, as recent studies demonstrate. As in ancient times, it remains in modern settings not just an issue between teachers and students but with parents as well.
Know your students
Of course, the good teacher is only effective in inculcating goodness because he knows his students and how they learn. Quintilian counsels teachers not to pass over elementary subjects in sole pursuit of more lofty or advanced ones because a child may not be ready for them (in fact, the Roman is so adamant on this point, he remarks that such a neglectful person is “unworthy of the name of teacher”, Inst. Ora. 2.3.5).1 Conversely, the good teacher is adaptable and can differentiate and tailor both learning and correction according to the demands of his students’ age, capacities, background, and so on. (Inst. Ora. 2.4.14) He writes: “The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.” (Inst. Ora. 2.8.1)
Quintilian advises a teachers to show nuance in how they educate individual students: work with and develop those natural abilities and gifts the young person exhibits (be they academic, literary, rhetorical or physical); even so, engender foreign habits and temperaments as are necessary for a full, rounded education, even when (perhaps particularly so) they are difficult for the student to adopt. After all, he notes, “if natural talent alone were sufficient, education might be dispensed with”. (Inst. Ora. 2.8.8.)
The challenge today is frequently balancing the demands of time and increased class sizes with those of personalised learning. With over twenty pupils in a classroom, limited space on the timetable and a jam-packed curriculum (in addition to the greater recognised learning needs among every cohort), it is remarkable teachers are even able to remember their students’ names! For true education to flourish and teaching that really works, we must have smaller class sizes and/or more time to work with those in our care. Quintilian’s emphasis on the individual student and developing the whole person is something modern educators would do well to take note of.
Know your subject
Beyond the moral virtues and building relationships, the good teacher must be learned and experienced in the subject of their lessons. This is certainly a problem we face in contemporary schooling where many teachers are fresh out of university and skilled in pedagogical theory but lacking practice and deep knowledge of their discipline. Sadly, this can result in “the incompetent teacher… quite likely to give his approval to faulty work”. (Inst. Ora. 2.3.11) Some experience of the world is also requisite or else how can teachers effectively answer questions put to them by students? Aside from responding to questions, the good teacher should prompt students – particularly those who keep quiet – to answer themselves; in this way their critical powers will be tested and the class will become more attentive. (Inst. Ora. 2.5.13)
Quintilian maintains teachers must be passionately devoted to their subject matter and avoid becoming a “dry teacher”. (Inst. Ora. 2.4.8-9) Again, this is a danger today when educators are not well verse in their subject, not especially interested in it, or really too heavily on other resources – nothing dries the soul like a textbook! Instead, the good teacher engages students with stories and primary sources, being able to win over their imagination and love. He lastly warns teachers not to be either stuck in the past or else wedded to the progress of the present age. (Inst. Ora. 2.5.21-24)
Above all, Quintilian reminds us that the good teacher is like the good parent, a living embodiment of what it means to be a virtuous human being for the young to imitate. It is a lofty vocation but one we should always strive to attain:
“For however many models for imitation he may give them from the authors they are reading, it will still be found that fuller nourishment is provided by the living voice, as we call it, more especially when it proceeds from the teacher himself, who, if his pupils are rightly instructed, should be the object of their affection and respect. And it is scarcely possible to say how much more readily we imitate those whom we like.” (Inst. Ora. 2.2.8)
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1. Quintilian further comments: “Nay, I would urge teachers too like nurses to be careful to provide softer food for still undeveloped minds and to suffer them to take their fill of the milk of the more attractive studies. For the time being the body may be somewhat plump, but maturer years will reduce it to a sparer habit.” (Inst. Ora. 2.4.5)
