The Ancient Romans were a highly organized civilization characterized by strict hierarchical government and firm discipline. Challenges to authority were brutally suppressed at home, and in the far-flung corners of the Roman Empire where few dared to challenge their right to rape and pillage too. Yet they were also a highly sophisticated people who bequeathed a system of codified laws, fine buildings, compelling literature and magnificent works of art that are emulated to this day and may be forever. The clue to this duplicity lies in the way the Romans educated their youth.
Roman education echoed the values that underpinned the nation’s culture. Tutoring ranged from brutally elemental through to teaching at the highest levels of the art that few universities explore today. Girls received primary 
schooling only. After that, they were expected to marry and bear children. Boys went on to study at secondary and sometimes tertiary levels too – during this time the nation’s value systems and the frontiers of human knowledge became their way of life.
Primary School days in Ancient Rome began before sunrise and continued throughout the day until light dimmed in early evening. The emphasis was on learning through rote and repetition and there was little time left over for initiative and young questioning minds. Reward received is thought to have been the absence of punishment as opposed to praise. Children soon learned that their teacher’s automatic response to indiscipline would be an ascending hierarchy of increasingly harsh beatings. Emphasis was placed on answering questions correctly and 
practicing writing on recyclable wax tablets with a stilus. At this early stage, the Roman education system was already preparing young people for the society within which they would take their appointed places.
Boys between the age of twelve and fifteen went on to Secondary Level where they studied history, language and literature. They were either taught at home by tutors or in small groups under the control of a grammaticus. Masterpieces like the Aeneid were used as vehicles for developing reading and writing skills, while learning the finer arts of grammar and figures of speech at the same time. Educators also prepared their pupils for the mythological beliefs that pervaded every aspect of the enigmatic nation’s life.
The Tertiary Phase of Roman education was reserved for the upper layer of pupils. These were not unsurprisingly also the sons of powerful wealthy patrician families who had predestined them to enter a career in either law or politics. 
The passion for debate in Ancient Rome was reflected in rhetorical exercises than honed their ability to construct compelling arguments for and against the same position. Teachers working at this level were honored citizens too, and were exempted from civil obligations like joining Roman Legions and going off to war.
Modern society frowns on education through discipline (although there are many who think indiscipline to be the worse choice). Ancient Rome was a cradle of education in many other ways, including formal schooling and a structured approach towards the development of fine young minds. In the process it excluded girls above the age of twelve and offered its finest opportunities only to the sons of influential families, and that would be frowned upon quite correctly these days. The Roman education system was a mirror of an enveloping society – how much so is ours too, as opposed to a launching platform for a future life?
Just as in Ancient Rome the education system mirrored the values of the culture in which it was embedded, so also do the modern dilemmas facing Italy affect Italian education today. There is a healthy debate regarding the balance to be struck between traditional values inspired by organized religion, and the needs for relativity in an increasingly egalitarian society. Schools are nevertheless well equipped, and every Italian child can finally aspire to the highest levels of society.
