Members and friends of Reading Classics will know about Professor Eleanor Dickey’s Ancient Schoolroom project, the painstaking reconstruction of an ancient classroom which brings the past to life for children and their teachers in 21st-century England. Now you can hear Professor Dickey talking about ancient education in the latest podcast from the British Academy’s series, ‘From Our Fellows’, described as ‘a regular podcast in which Fellows of the British Academy offer brief reflections on what is currently interesting them’.

In her talk, Professor Dickey addresses the fundamental question of what it was like to go to school in the ancient world. She conjures up an environment radically different from our own modern school experience, and reveals how school students in antiquity actually received a remarkably tailored and individual education. Listen to her podcast to have your preconceptions about school, and about pedagogical approaches, challenged by the evidence of the ancient world.

The podcast may be found at: https://www.britac.ac.uk/audio/from-our-fellows-13-eleanor-dickey-school-ancient-rome

For more information on the Ancient Schoolroom project, see https://readingancientschoolroom.com/