Quintilian the Child Development Expert

Marianthe Colakis

The Covenant School

This paper looks at some of the statements on children’s growth and development according to Quintilian’s De Institutione Oratoria. It then compares his writing with the findings of child development specialists, and finally looks at the implications for today’s teachers. Quintilian is usually discussed as a source of information on ancient education, rhetoric, and philosophy, but he deserves to be examined for practical application as well.

For example, Quintilian states that he disagrees with those who say that most children are stupid; his view is borne out by what we now know about the rapid growth in normal children’s vocabulary, grammar, and conversation. Furthermore, social interaction plays an important role in the development of thought processes. The psychologist Lev Vygotsky in particular stresses the social context of cognitive development and the centrality of language in developing higher thought processes. “Assisted discovery”, in which children are allowed to work out problems for themselves under the guidance of a more experienced peer or an adult, is discussed in somewhat different language by Quintilian. As today’s educators do, he realizes that teaching of academic subjects is only one function of a school. The other is socialization with peers and with adults outside the family, what we might call affective development or the “hidden curriculum”. For this reason, he favors classroom instruction over home schooling. According to him, contact with peers provides academic as well as social benefits. His remarks on the positive influence of peers have been supported by contemporary studies of peer influences. He also discusses the moral as well as the intellectual development of the child, paralleling the work of Piaget, Kohlberg, and others.

In his discussion of the ways students can help one another learn, he recalls a practice of his own teacher which we could still use today: he had the students speak in order of ability, and the one who had made the most progress had the privilege of declaiming first. Quintilian’s teacher also had the students compete regularly among themselves for the position of “class leader,” so that the winner had to defend his title continually and the rest learned that defeat was not permanent. Competitiveness in the classroom is not universally advocated today; whole books have been written against it, most notably by Alfie Kohn. Still, most of us do rely upon games which most students seem to enjoy whether or not they win.

Lastly, Quintilian recognizes that it is impossible to separate a child’s academic well-being from his or her emotional well-being, and that the demeanor of the teacher matters. Quintilian lays out a series of qualities that the teacher should possess and states the effect on the quality of the teacher/student relationship and on the student. We may compare these with contemporary manuals on enhancing student-teacher relationships.