We explain what a school is as an institution, its origin, history and what types exist. Also, the origin of the term and its other meanings.

What is a school?
We call school, in very broad terms, any educational establishment or institution that is, in which a certain type of instruction is given, whether to children, young people or adults. However, in many countries the term is usually reserved for early childhood education, that is, to refer to primary school.
When we talk about school, at the same time, we may be referring to the educational institution, the educational procedure (that is, schooling) or the teaching itself provided in the school.
In this multiplicity of senses, furthermore, the term “school” is also used to refer to the doctrines or values of an author specific, to the set of their followers who adhere to them (the Aristotelian school of thought, for example), or even the common features of a compendium of artistic works that share a historical moment, cultural tradition or geographical region (the Flemish school in painting, for example).
The word school, in any case, comes from Latin school and this one from Greek schoolwhich could be translated as “leisure” or “free time.” To understand this meaning we must go back to the organization of Greek society according to Aristotle (384-322 BC), who differentiated the time of rest (Anapause), working time (ascholia) and leisure time (school), the latter dedicated to the aggrandizement of the spirit.
Thus, while the first two times (rest and work) were dedicated to the survival of the body, the last was entirely free, and could be invested in pursuing knowledge that was of interest to the individual. This changed when the first philosophical schools emerged in Greek antiquity, and the word school became synonymous with “center of study” or “center of knowledge.”
See also: Pillars of education
Origin of the school
Although it may seem strange today, the modern notion of a school, that is, a center where children and young people (or some adults) go to train and learn, is quite recent in the history of humanity. In ancient times, the transmission of knowledge and trades was a family affair, in which parents taught their children the trade they would perform for the rest of their lives.
However, Many ancient religious cultures encouraged ritual learning among their young people. Thus, societies such as India and Hebrew offered an education either through practice at the hands of a guru (as in Hinduism and Jainism) or by reading sacred texts (such as the Talmud).
Other cultures, such as the Chinese and the Egyptian, instead designed more or less bureaucratized institutions in which individuals were trained technically and professionally based on the cultural or political needs of the monarchy.
The Egyptians, for example, developed an educational system based on “houses of instruction” (that is, schools) in which reading and writing, civility, religion, calculation, swimming and gymnastics, among other knowledge, and which distinguished through an exam those who went from elementary school to higher school, where they received more specialized instruction, aimed at forming the caste of priests.
However, The great model of origin of Western education was born in ancient Greece and consisted of a combination of intellectual teachings and physical education. The exact model could vary from region to region of Hellenic Greece, and was aimed only at free male citizens (that is, excluding women, slaves and foreigners, who had to learn trades based on repetition or family teaching).
The Greek school was called paideia and consisted of the transmission of two types of knowledge: values (knowing how to be) and technique (knowing how to do) at the hands of a teacher (grammatikós or rhétor) whose main task was to promote mnemonics and exercise physical punishment among students. The exact purpose of this knowledge could be to train citizens for war, like the Spartan model, or to imbue them with local values, as in the case of Athens.
Around the 4th century BC. C. the ancient Greeks systematized the national educational model in what was known as enkiklos paideia (that is, encyclopedia). According to this organized model, Greek education was composed of:
- Raising at home until the age of 7 (called trophe) at the hands of the mother or nurse, and consisted of instilling Greek values and traditions.
- Later the child entered the paideia provided by the State, where private teachers trained him in various knowledge until he was 14 years old (until 18 in Sparta).
- Then the teenager entered the ephebia (in Athens) or melestrenia (in Sparta) until the age of 20, to receive the bulk of the most complex instruction that accompanied him throughout his life and that made him a Greek citizen in all his splendor.
School types
In general terms, today a distinction is made between:
- The public school: It is provided and maintained by the State. It is part of the highly standardized public education system,
- The private school: It is financially supported by third parties. It can offer specialized alternatives to those who can afford it, such as bilingual education, education focused on certain skills, religious education or cutting-edge educational models.
Continue with: Pedagogy
References
- “School” in Wikipedia.
- “History of education” on Wikipedia.
- “School” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Etymology of School” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “School (education)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.