The goal of education in Rome is to be an effective speaker.

The school day began before sunrise, as did all work in Rome. Students brought candles to use until daybreak.

There is a rest for lunch and the afternoon siesta, and then back to school until late afternoon. (No one knows how long the school year actually was; it probably varied from school to school.) However, one thing was uniform - the school began each year on the 24th of March!

In early Roman days, a Roman boy's education took place at home. If his father could read and write, he taught his son to do the same.

The father instructed his sons in Roman law, history, customs, and physical training, to prepare for war.Reverence for the gods, respect for law, obedience to authority, and truthfulness were the most important lessons to be taught.

Girls were taught by their mother. Girls learned to spin, weave, and sew.

About 200 BC, the Romans borrowed some of the ancient Greek system of education. Although we did not add many subjects, we did begin sending our boys, and some of our girls, with their father's permission, to school, outside their home, at age 6 or 7.

The children studied reading, writing, and counting. They read scrolls and books. They wrote on boards covered with wax, and used pebbles to do math problems. They are taught Roman numerals, and recited lessons they had memorized.

At age 12 or 13, the boys of the upper classes attended "grammar" school, where they studied Latin, Greek, grammar, and literature.

At age 16, some boys went on to study public speaking at the rhetoric school, to prepare for a life as an orator. Poor children couldn't attend as the schools were not free.

Children, educated outside of the home, were sent to the house of a tutor, who would group-tutor.

Children, educated in the home, were taught by intelligent and gifted slaves.

Children, in poorer homes, did not have slaves to teach them; they were taught by their parents in early Roman days.