Antik dönemde eğitim ve okul yapıları üzerine

Abstract

The education and instruction of children and young people has been an important topic that families, various communities, and societies have been closely involved in throughout the history. One of the most important places of education and instruction, especially until the modern age, was undoubtedly the home and the close environment, where children live with their families. The instructor/teacher would come home and teach there. Another important place has been the temple, as seen in many different religions today. The temple architectures of various religions included sections that were specifically created for that purpose. But through the human history there also appeared educational/instructional institutions featuring a certain architecture, besides residences and temples. Undoubtedly, one of the most notable of the above was the ancient Hellenic gymnasium, which beyond being an eponym for modern western educational institutions, also proved to be an ideal model (for example, in today's Germany, the name of the institution that corresponds to the high school in Turkey is "Gymnasium"). Over time, gymnasions were transformed from places, where mostly physical training was conducted and warfare were taught, to places, where the literacy skills were acquired and where intellectual development was attained. Essentially, the blended education system, if the term is appropriate, determined the architecture of gymnasions. Especially after the end of the 4th century BC, the gymnasions, which started to take shape in architectural terms, gained almost a standard structure appearance in the following centuries and turned into institutions that each of the ancient cities of the Eastern Mediterranean had at least one. In addition, as an indication of their importance gymnasions became the representation areas of kings and city elites. The architectural reflections of the said importance and the desire to create representation can still be observed after 2000 years, especially in many gymnasion buildings in Anatolia.