In the early history of the nation, “Education,” says Painter, “was restricted to the family, in which the father was the principal teacher. There were no popular schools nor professional teachers. Yet the instruction of the Jew ... embraced a vast number of particulars.”[19] Hinsdale says: “Jewish education began with the mother. What the true Jewish mother, considered as a teacher, was, we know from both the Testaments and from many other sources. The very household duties that she performed molded her children in accordance with the national discipline. ‘The Sabbath meal, the kindling of the Sabbath lamp, and the setting apart of a portion of the dough from the bread for the household—these are but instances with which every Taph, as he clung to his mother’s skirts, must have been familiar.’ The bit of parchment fastened to the doorpost, on which the name of the Most High was written, ... would be among the first things to arrest his attention.
“It was in the school of the mother’s knee that the stories of patriarchs and prophets, of statesmen and warriors, of poets and sages, of kings and judges, wise men and patriots, and of the great Law-giver Himself,—the whole forming the very best body of material for the purposes of child-nurture found in any language,—were told and retold until they became parts of the mind itself.” He then mentions the case of Timothy, and adds: “As teachers of their children, the women of every country may learn lessons from the matrons of Israel.”[20] This was evidently the original plan, and had the families proved faithful to the trust, the greater part, if not all, of the education would have been in the family school. Always, however, as long as Israel was a nation, the child (and the term covered the first twelve or fifteen years) was under the instruction of the parents.
Jewish church schools
From the home school we follow the Jewish child to the synagogue or church school. Moses was instructed by the Lord to make every priest a teacher, so the nation had a whole tribe of teachers. As every town had its synagogue, so “a town in which there is no school must perish.” Quoting again from Hinsdale: “The children were gathered for instruction in the synagogues and schoolhouses, where the teacher, generally the Chazzan, or officer of the synagogue, ‘imparted to them the precious knowledge of the law, with constant adaptation to their capacity, with unwearied patience, intense earnestness, strictness tempered by kindness, but, above all, with the highest object of their training ever in view. To keep children from all contact with vice; to train them to gentleness, even when bitterest wrong had been received; to show sin in its repulsiveness, rather than to terrify by its consequences; to train to strict truthfulness; to avoid all that might lead to disagreeable or indelicate thoughts; and to do all this without showing partiality, without either undue severity or laxity of discipline, with judicious increase of study and work, with careful attention to thoroughness in acquiring knowledge—all this and more constituted the ideal set before the teacher, and made his office of such high esteem in Israel.’”[21] These teachers took the youth at the most critical period of their development. And how thoroughly they understood the needs of the developing minds!
Schools of the prophets
In the days of Samuel we read, for the first time, of the schools of the prophets, where young men were gathered together for the study of the law, of music, poetry, and history, and of the various trades. The name School of the Prophets would indicate the spirituality of their work, and reference to the time of Elijah and Elisha and the experience of Saul would prove the truth of the inference.
Studies in Jewish schools
Concerning the subjects taught we are not left in ignorance, if we study the history of the people. Thus, quoting again from Painter: “The Hebrew parent was not only to impart oral instruction to his children, but to teach them also reading and writing. As he was to inscribe the words of the Lord upon his doorposts and gates, he must himself have learned to write; and, as he wrote them for his children, they must have been taught to read. Hence, it appears that the ability to read and write was general among the ancient Jews; and, in this particular, they surpassed every other nation of antiquity.”[22] Hinsdale says: “From the teaching of the alphabet, or writing in the primary school, to the farthest limit of instruction in the academies of the rabbis, all was marked by extreme care, wisdom, accuracy, and moral and religious purpose as the ultimate object.”[23]
The Bible as a text-book
“Up to ten years of age the Bible was the sole text-book; from ten to fifteen the Mischna, or traditional law, was used; and after that the pupil was admitted to the discussions of the rabbinical schools. So extensive a course of study, however, was taken only by those who showed decided aptitude for learning. Bible study began with the book of Leviticus; then came other parts of the Pentateuch; next the prophets, and finally the Hagiography.”[24]