Jn the midst of the convulsions caused by the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple R. Jochanan ben Sakkai obtained from Ves pasian the permission to establish an academy at Jamnia which at once became the centre of Jewish learning, the mother of the succeeding high schools where the discussions were held whose records are preserved in the Talmud, (see TALMUD) which is filled with evidences of wise pedagogic insight in the arrangement of schools and courses of studies and antici pates many of the new movements in education which mark the present time. Especially is the high importance of the teacher and the re spect due to him expressed in the most em phatic manner. President of the Academy?' relates the Talmud, "sent some scholars to ex amine the schools and establish them where none existed. They came to a city and de manded to see the keepers of the city. The magistrates and police officials were introduced to them. 'These are not the city's keepers!' said the wise men, Who then are?' asked the citizens. The city's keepers are the teachers of the children,' was the reply.° "A city with out elementary schools deserves to be de stroyed,° is another saying. Nothing was per mitted to interfere with the school lessons, not even the rebuilding of the Temple. Rabbi Jehudah said ((The world is saved only by the reath of the school children" The subjects of instruction were in the first place the re ligious literature, the Bible and the Talmud. But the studies were so arranged that by the nature of the talmudic discussions they em braced all known sciences : natural history, anatomy, medicine, geometry, astronomy and foreign languages.
In Later Times.— The succeeding ages were dominated by the wise rules laid down in the Talmud referring to discipline, qualifica tions of the teachers, the respect due to the teachers, rules about limiting the size of the classes taught by one teacher and the atten tion paid to the individuality of the pupils. The great regard paid to the school by the Jews in the Middle Ages, when among Chris tians education was limited to the small number of the favored classes, is apparent from a de tailed scheme preserved from the 12th century for the course of instruction followed in the schools. The order of studies is carefully elaborated from the elementary schools for all children through •the secondary schools up to the academies. In the 13th century the °seven sciences° comprised the prescribed curriculum among the Jews as it did among the Christians. Especially in Italy systematic education received great care and encourage ment at that time, and' the same is true of Spain and Provence. Great rabbis stimulated interest in science outside of religious lore; He brew books of ethics of the period contain side by side with the moral teachings of the rabbis maxims from Aristotle, Porphyry, Theophras tus and others. The Jewish educational cur riculum in Italy included the whole field of knowledge, theology, poetry, philosophy and natural science long before the Renaissance.
In Spain the ordinary course of Jewish study was Bible, Hebrew poetry, Talmud, the relation of philosophy and revelation, the logic of Aristotle, the elements of Euclid, arithmetic, the mathematical works of Nicomachus, Theo dosius, Menelaus, Archimedes and others, op tics, music, mechanics, medicine, natural science and metaphysics. So it happened that during the darkest mediaeval times Jews were con spicuous as scholars, philosophers and physi cians; to them, in fact, is owing the scientific elaboration and advancement of medicine; they took the most active part in the progress of as tronomy, founded the famous schools of Mont pelier and Salerno and contributed essentially to the flourishing condition of Padua. With out Jewish inventions neither Columbus nor Vasco de Gama could have made their daring sea voyages. Moritz Steinschneider in his great work The Hebrew translations of the middle ages, and the Jews as interpreters> has shown the inestimable services rendered by them in being the mediators of Greek and Mohamme dan civilization for the nations of the Occi dent. All of this high education and respect for scholarship was based upon the broad foundation of the elementary school which ex isted in every and even the smallest Jewish con gregation.
Child Training.— Although little attention was paid to the education of the girls, never theless many of them became distinguished by scholarship, and all were imbued with the high est appreciation of learning. The mothers took their little sons to school and both the mother and father participated in the important func tion of introducing the boy to school for the first time. This was made a solemn religious ceremony, so arranged as to leave an indelible impression upon the tender mind of the child. The initiation took place in the synagogue on the Feast of Pentecost, the traditional anniver sary of the revelation on Mount Sinai. Early in the morning the boy was dressed in new clothes and three cakes of fine flour and honey were baked for him by a young maiden. Three eggs were boiled and apples and other fruit were gathered in profusion. Then the child was taken in the arms of the rabbi or another learned friend first to the school and then to the synagogue or vice-versa. The child was placed on the reading dais before the scroll, from which the Ten Commandments were read as the lesson of the day. In, the school he then received the first lesson in reading Hebrew. On a slate were traced in honey some of the letters of the alphabet, or simple texts, such as *Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance for the congregation of Jacob° (Dent. xxxiii, 4); the first verse of Leviticus and ((Let instruction be my vocation.° The child was then handed over to the arms of his mother who had stood by during this delightful scene. (Abraham's 'Jew ish Life in the Middle Ages,' p. 348, from Machzor Vitry, p. 628).