The Early Irish Monastic Schools / A study of Ireland's contribution to early medieval culture

by Hugh Graham

METHODS OF TEACHING:

In teaching reading it was usual to begin with the Alphabet. St. Columba’s first alphabet was written or impressed upon a cake which he afterwards ate as he played by the side of a stream near his tutor’s home.[264] Sometimes the alphabet was engraved upon a large stone.[265] The Psalms in Latin seem to have been the earliest subject of instruction.[266] As we have seen these were learned by rote, but judging by the numerous glosses and annotations[267] thereon it is almost certain that the teachers were not satisfied with mere repetition but explained the meaning thoroughly.

It may seem strange that the reading of Latin should be taught before the reading of the vernacular. The explanation is simple. The Irish alphabet is based on the Latin (as are the alphabets of most European languages) and consequently suits the phonetic system of the Irish language less perfectly than it does the Latin. Having learned the alphabet the reading of Latin is comparatively easy even for young students. At a later stage when the reading of the vernacular was introduced progress was no doubt rapid since the student had merely to associate the written symbols with sounds that were familiar to him.

The next stage was to teach writing. The letters were formed on a waxen tablet (polaire in Irish) with a pointed metal style (graib).[268] One of these old-time tablets is now in the National Museum, Dublin.[269] The writing on it is in Latin, apparently a pupil’s class notes.

Joyce thinks that there were no elementary books for teaching Latin and that the pupil had to face the difficulties of the language in a rough and ready manner, beginning right away at the author.[270] With this view we do not agree. There are still extant numerous vocabularies, paradigms, treatises on declensions, and several copies of Priscian’s grammatical tract all in the style of writing practised by Irish scribes. In such works we have clear evidence of preparations made to smooth the path for beginners. Our view is in harmony with the maxim laid down in the eighth century gloss: “It is the custom with good teachers (dagforcitlidib) to praise the understanding of their pupils that they may love what they hear.”[271] There is a similar reminder in another eighth century gloss.[272] This quotation is interesting as showing that oral teaching was practised, that good teaching was appreciated, that the methods of good teachers were commended for imitation and further that the learning process was to be as pleasant as possible. It would be a mistake to imagine that the desire to make learning attractive began and ended with the carving of alphabets on cakes. In the same connection we may refer to the practice of many eminent teachers who were wont to compose educational poems embodying the leading facts of history and other branches of instruction. A considerable number of compositions in old Irish MSS. are of this class. These poems were explained and commented upon by their authors and learned by rote by the pupils. Flann of Monasterboice followed this plan and we still have several of his educational poems on historical subjects.[273]

There is a curious geographical poem[274] forming a sort of text-book on general geography which was used in the school of Ros-Ailithir in Cork of which the author MacCosse was Principal (Fer-leighinn). This poem contained practically all that was then known of the principal countries of the world. It was written about the beginning of the tenth century. The tenth century map of the world drawn in England for an Anglo-Saxon is supposed to have been the work of an Irish artist.[275] Although inaccurate in many particulars this map is historically interesting as showing the state of geographical knowledge at this time.

In teaching Greek the Irish monks used the Nermeneumata of the Pseudo-Dositheus, the work of Macrobius De Differentiis et Societatibus Graeci Latinique Verbi, Latin glosses and interlinear versions.[276] With regard to the Pseudo-Dositheus and the book of Macrobius, Traube believes that were it not for the fact that these books were used by the Irish in teaching Greek both would have been lost to the afterworld. Mrs. Concannon conjectures that the earliest teachers of Latin brought with them to Ireland the third century Disticha Catonis and used them as materials for teaching as well as for moral instruction.[277] The many copies of Priscian with numerous glosses thereon would suggest that this work was extensively used in Irish monastic schools. Traube has shown conclusively that the St. Gall copy of Priscian was written by some friends of Sedulius (of Liège) and supposes it was copied in some Irish monastery about the beginning of the ninth century and brought by Irishmen to the Continent.[278] Indeed, the glosses everywhere furnish objective proofs that the Irish monks were skilled practical teachers as well as accomplished classical scholars. In all these interlinear and marginal notes so abundant in the MSS. of the Old Irish period (prior to 900 A.D.) we see clear evidence of preparation for the work of teaching.

It is worthy of note that in the earlier stages of instruction the pupil was encouraged to ask questions about the difficulties which he encountered and the tutor was expected to explain everything that was obscure to the learner. At a later stage the learner was questioned to test whether he had grasped the meaning of what he read, and to raise difficulties which he was required to explain.[279] In fact the instruction would seem to have been thorough and in many respects was at least equal in efficiency, if not in technique, to that imparted in many of our modern schools. We are told that it was the special merit of the tutor who obtained the degree known as Sruth-do-aill that “he was able to modify his instruction to the complexion of the information in mercy to the people who were unable to follow the instruction of a teacher of higher degree. In other words he was able to make hard things easy to weak students who might get frightened in the presence of the formidable scholar.”[280] This would show that the question of “individual differences” was a live one in pedagogical circles in those days and that a genuine attempt was made to solve it. When we come in a later chapter to discuss the characteristics of the groups of figures represented on the sculptured crosses we shall see that the value of “visual instruction” was appreciated.