Docere et Discere

Learning How to Teach vs. Teaching How to Learn

By Amy Barr of The Lukeion Project

As the world has changed rapidly, so too has education. Some parents who might have rarely pondered pedagogy were forced to discover new ways to balance out the chaos of their child’s on-again-off-again education. Home education has more than doubled in the last year as more are taking matters into their own hands. The Lukeion Project has welcomed many new families seeking to either supplement their children’s education or, having newly switched to home education full time, provide some much needed educational help. I figured some teaching insights from the ancient world might bring perspective. The Romans had a lot of thoughts about learning, teaching, and being teachable.

The Latin verb docere (to teach, to point out) is the source of the English word “doctor,” a person who is an educator (not a medical professional who was a medicor). Also a doctor was a person who has already been taught or well-instructed, coming from the verb’s passive participle doctus. The Romans would have also used this participial form to describe an experienced or clever person who knew a subject very thoroughly which really the source of one earning one’s “doctorate” degree. Docte is a related adverb meaning “shrewdly” or “cleverly.”

Monere (also meaning “to warn” or “to remind” about something that a person should already know). A monitor (from which we get the modern English word) meant “prompter” as in a person who sits discreetly near a stage to help actors remember forgotten lines. By-and-by the English word “monetary” comes from the same verb but that’s a very convoluted story to include here.

Instruere (where we get “instruction” and “instructor”) meant “to build or prepare.” This verb (struo or instruo) might be used setting up one’s home, setting up a battle line, or building a wall. The passive participle instructus means a combination of “equipped” and “supplied.”

Praecipere means to “to warn” and also “to anticipate.” When using the word to indicate “to teach,” the writer implies how an educator equips the learner to be ready for something that will eventually happen. A praeceptum (precept) is a command or rule—something that must and will happen so one must plan for it.

We get the English word erudite (scholarly) from erudire which can mean “to instruct” in the sense of taming or removing roughness from a student. Look at ex + rudis, a word meaning rough, raw, or uncultivated sort of like a weedy field before it is made into a garden.  

Bringing young people along in their education has always been a mix of forming, warning, building, furnishing, and equipping—but what about the job of being educated? What is a student’s responsibility in all this?  

The Latin verb reperire means “to learn” in the sense of finding out, obtaining, getting to know something. A repertor was a discoverer or inventor. Both words come from re + parere, a word meaning “to produce” or “to create.”Reperire also means “to create again and again.”

Discere, from which we get “discovery” a term related to “didactic,” means “to acquire knowledge of” or “to find out” in much the same way that an investigator discovers the facts of a situation. The -sc- part of the word is a special ingredient in Latin that suggests the process takes time and grows as it goes (we call -sc- an inceptive).  Similarly, the verb conperire also means “to discover by investigation.” From this Latin verb we get the English word “compare,” like when we hold up several objects and investigate the differences.

 The verb percipere means “to collect” or “to seize” as well as “to learn.” A perceptive person mentally comprehends all the principles at hand and collects them in mind much like a detective.

Notice how all the words for educating suggest a supporting role (like a tour guide or the person that helps remind a student of forgotten lines or maybe the person that keeps the supplies available). The words for learning are active and primary. The student is the investigator, builder, observer, the main agent in gleaning and gaining knowledge. The educator? Our job is just to be here to help.