Guide
The Teaching of Children
By Carol Bakhos
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
The Importance of Practical Education
Against Apion 2.171–174
All practices, employments, and studies, for us, refer back to piety toward God; for [Moses] did not leave any of these phenomena unexamined or indeterminate. All education and the training of habits…
Primary Source
Scribal Exercise
Part of the process of scribal training in antiquity involved writing abecedaries, or practice alphabets. This Hebrew abecedary was found at Qumran, the archaeological site associated with the Dead…
Primary Source
Gender Differences in Torah Education
Sifre Deuteronomy 46
And teach them to your children (Deuteronomy 11:19–21): your sons and not your daughters, the words of R. Yosi b. Akiva. On the basis of the verse at hand they [the rabbis] have said: When a child…
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Rabbinic Support for Elementary Teachers
b. Bava Batra 21a
For R. Judah said [that] Rav said: That man shall truly be remembered for good, and Joshua b. Gamla is his name. For without him the Torah would have been forgotten in Israel. For in the beginning, he…
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A Pedagogue Leads a Prince to Evil
Genesis Rabbah 28:6
R. Yudan said, “[The matter may be compared] to a king who handed his son over to a pedagogue, and he led him into evil ways. The king became angry with his son and killed him. The king said, ‘Nobody…
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A Pedagogue Aids in Violence
Leviticus Rabbah 2:5; 10:3
2:5. R. Simeon b. Yoḥai said, “[This may be compared] to a king who had an only son. Every day he instructed a member of his household and said to him: ‘Make sure that my son eats! Make sure that my…