"THE LAW HAS BECOME OUR TUTOR"

The Tutor and His Responsibilities

Tutors were widely used in well-to-do Greek, Roman, and perhaps even Jewish households to supervise the activities of children from infancy to puberty.  The tutor was generally a trusted slave, often aged, who acted as an attendant to ensure a child's safety and to see to it that the father's wishes for the child were respected. All day long, the tutor accompanied the child wherever he went, attended to his hygiene, took him to school, often carried his books and other equipment, and watched over his studies.

The tutor was not usually a schoolteacher. Rather than giving formal scholastic instruction, the tutor merely administered the father's directives in a custodial fashion.  He did, however, give indirect instruction through supervision and discipline. This included inculcating decorum, imparting rebukes, and even inflicting physical punishment for  misconduct. The mother and father, of course, were the child's primary educators. Yet, as the boy grew, his tutor taught him that he should have good posture when he walked in the streets, that he should wear his cloak, sit, and eat properly, and that he should rise for his elders, love his parents, and so on.

Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 B.C.E.) was in no doubt that childish passions had to be restrained.  "Just as no sheep or other grazing beast ought to exist without a herdsman, so children cannot live without a tutor, nor slaves without a master," he wrote:  "This view might seem extreme; still, that is how Plato saw things. 

The constant presence of tutors earned them  a reputation as oppressive guards and harsh disciplinarians, the source of an endless flow of petty, tiresome, and ineffective accusations.  Even so, the tutor provided  protection, both moral and physical.  Greek historian Appian of the second century C.E. relates the story of one tutor who en route to school had to throw his arms around his ward to protect him from would-be murderers.  When he refused to release the boy, both tutor and child were killed. 

Immorality was rife in the Hellenistic world. Children, especially boys, needed protection from sexual molestation. Tutors would thus attend the child's lessons, since many schoolteachers could not be trusted. Greek orator Libanius of the fourth century C.E. went so far as to say that tutors had to act as "guards of the blossoming youth," to "drive out the undesirable lovers, thrusting them away and keeping them out , not allowing them to fraternize with the boys."  Many tutors earned the respect of those whom they protected. Memorial stones attest to the gratitude adults still felt for beloved former tutors  when these died. 

Next time: 'THE LAW HAS BECOME OUR TUTOR" -The Law as a Tutor

From the Watchtower magazine