Abstract
To delve into primary school teaching, we draw on Papyrus Bouriant 1, the book of a 6th century teacher, supplemented by other papyrological evidence.
This apprenticeship was based on four successive missions :
(1) Learning to write. Pupils begin by learning the letters of the alphabet, then move on to practice by learning to write their own name and, very quickly, by copying texts, often sentences, sometimes even longer passages. Some papyri show that writing exercises even preceded the initiation to reading, and that children were made to copy texts that were incomprehensible to them. This pedagogy, which may shock us today, can be explained by the graphic system in force at the time, scriptio continua (writing without spaces between words or punctuation), and by the bilingualism of Egyptian society.
(2) Learning to write. Following the introduction of the alphabet and the first writing exercises, the teacher taught his pupils syllables, a method that enjoyed unfailing success right up to modern times.
(3) Learning to read and develop vocabulary through lists of words classified by number of syllables. The criteria used to select these words meet two objectives: (a) to soften pronunciation with words that are difficult to pronounce ; (b) to enrich vocabulary and offer a first introduction to literature.
(4) Learn to read and write sustained texts, chosen from among the words of illustrious men, texts with a strong moral connotation and preferably in verse. The texts in the Bouriant Papyrus are exactly in line with this program, with five dits attributed to the Cynic philosopher Diogenes, twenty-four maxims in verse by Menander and the beginning of the first prologue to the versified fables of Babrios. They follow a perfect pedagogical progression, both in form and content, which we will outline below.
Because these methods have proved so successful, they have evolved little. We are struck by the conservatism of Greek teaching, which can be measured by the structural similarities between P. Bouriant 1 and the "Livre d'école", separated by almost a millennium (even if the choice of texts bears witness to an evolution with the development of an increasingly narrow school canon of classical works).
We may wonder why our papyrus contains no Christian texts or words referring to Christian works or concepts, even though the master displays his Christianity with the crosses at the beginning of each page and the initial invocation (" God, be my guide "). In fact, this notebook reflects a widespread attitude in the teaching world, which in turn reflects that of a large proportion of intellectual circles : rather than renouncing the classical heritage, we cling to it, retaining what continues to be useful for rhetorical training and can fulfil a moralizing function, rid of what might make it unwelcome to a Christian sensibility.
