Homework: Trivium & Quadrivium

 "THE seven liberal arts? the trivium composed of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium made up of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy were the basis of the curricula in medieval universities."

It is interesting to know that for the Medieval universities, the curriculum was made up of grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. There was no specialization in medieval universities. It seems so different from modern universities' curriculum and format. However, we still can see the influence on modern universities. We can see the two large faculty in most universities are arts and science, which seems to correspond to trivium and quadrivium. The modern university requires students to take elective courses outside of their faculty.

"The very word "liberal" implies that these arts belonged to the education of free man, not to the technological training of slaves."

 I am surprised that class hierarchy was extremely strict, and technological training was only for slaves at medieval times.  

"Plato, whose plan was a theoretical one probably never put into actual practice but nevertheless reflecting the spirit and ideal of his period, conceived of such education as the sole occupation of the first thirty-five years of a man's life. He would have the first twenty years spent on gymnastics, music, and grammar, the next ten on arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and harmony, and the next five on philosophy."

I was shocked by how much philosophical knowledge and physical training Plato thought an educated person needs back then. They spent 35 years of learning before they were deemed useful by Plato. By his definition, we are not considered as educated yet.