IN St Augustine’s Confessions, written in AD 397-8, the saint tries to understand why, as a boy, he loved Latin but hated Greek, and concludes that teaching through fear does not work. Instead, he writes, free curiosity should be encouraged.

“Why did I hate the Greek classics? For not one word of it did I understand, and to make me understand I was urged vehemently with cruel threats and punishments. Time was also (as an infant) I knew no Latin; but this I learned without fear or suffering, by mere observation, amid the caresses of my nursery and jests of friends, smiling and sportively encouraging me. This I learned without any pressure of punishment to urge me on, for my heart urged me to give birth to its conceptions, which I could only do my learning words not of those who taught, but of those who talked with me; in whose ears also I gave birth to the thoughts, whatever I conceived. No doubt, then, that a free curiosity has more force in our learning these things, than a frightful enforcement.”

From The Confessions of St Augustine, trs Rev. Dr. E. B. Pusey, 1838.

Biographical note: Aurelius Augustinius, son of Monica and Patricius, was born in AD 354 at Tagaste in Numidia, now the Algerian city of Souk Ahras. In 391 he was ordained priest and was later consecrated Bishop of Hippo. He died on 28th August 430 at the age of 76.