The recalcitrant, say
the legalists, is compelled to employ a tutor for his child.
Every scholar in Israel is obliged to gather children about him;
and the rabbinical works contain most detailed recommendations
concerning the organization of schools and methods of
instruction. One comes upon principles and rules of pedagogy
unusually advanced for their time. For instance, teachers were
forbidden to have more than forty pupils, and were not to use a
more severe means of punishment than whipping with a small strap.
In Christian schools, on the contrary, pedagogic methods were
backward and barbarous. It was considered an excellent plan to
beat all pupils with the ferule [ferrule sic], in order to make
knowledge enter the heads of the bad and to keep the good from
the sin of pride.
Among the Jews instruction was tempered to suit the faculty of
the learner. First the child was taught to read Hebrew,
translate the daily prayers, and recite the more important of
them by heart. Then the Pentateuch beginning with Leviticus was
explained to him, and, if necessary, it was translated into
French. It was read with a special chant. Rashi, be it said
parenthetically, by his commentary gave this Bible instruction a
more solid basis. Not until the pupil was a little older did he
study the Talmud, which is so well qualified to develop
intelligence and clear-headedness. His elementary education
completed, and provided he had shown taste and inclination for
the more difficult studies, the young man went to special
schools.
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