Tempo e AprendizAdo. o modelo de rATio STudiorum do Século Ao XVi Ao XiX time and learning. the model oF Ratio StudioRum From the XVi to the XiX century

the relationship between education and time, in its theoretical, methodological and historical aspects, is a crucial aspect of the history of Western world. in contrast to social, economic and anthropological studies, which have attempted to capture the importance of the passing of days and seasons, time remains a lacuna in the history of education. The lack of a deep reflection on this topic is surprising. I shall examine the concept of time in relation to the history of education, to explore the different ideas of time that educationalists and teachers have expressed, in various countries. Attempts to standardize education, the organization of schools, and student timetables have been made over centuries. these models have crossed national borders and, because of their effectiveness, have had a widespread international reach. the most interesting case is that of the Jesuits. in fact, the purpose of the Ratio Studiorum was to organize school days and working times using a very accurate timetable that kept students busy throughout the year, according to the church calendar. this pattern effectively became a model for the creation of colleges around the world.

school days and working times using a very accurate timetable that kept students busy throughout the year, according to the church calendar. this pattern effectively became a model for the creation of colleges around the world.
Resumen la relación entre educación y tiempo en sus facetas teóricas, metodológicas e históricas es un aspecto crucial de la historia do mundo occidental. en comparación con los estudios sociales, económicos y antropológicos que intentan capturar la importancia del transcurso de los días y de las estaciones, el tiempo permanece como una laguna en la historia de la educación. Es sorprendente la falta de una reflexión profunda sobre ese tópico. Yo examiné el concepto de tiempo en relación a la historia de la educación para explorar las diferentes ideas de tiempo que los educadores y los profesores han expresado por medio de las fronteras nacionales. a lo largo de los siglos surgieron intentos de estandarizar la educación, la organización escolar y la agenda de los alumnos. Esos modelos atravesaron las fronteras nacionales y a causa de su eficacia llegaron a tener un alcance internacional. El caso más interesante es el de los jesuitas. El propósito del Ratio Studiorum era organizar los días escolares y los tiempos de trabajo usando un cronograma muy preciso que mantuviese a los alumnos ocupados durante todo el año, de acuerdo con el calendario de la iglesia. este modelo efectivamente se transformó en un molde para la creación de colegios alrededor del mundo.
time And leARning: A histoRicAl peRspective 1 the relationship between education and time, in its theoretical, methodological and historical aspects, is a crucial part of the history of the Western world 2 .
time is an element that can be analysed internationally, even if it is strictly linked to local situations, and perceptions of time can be compared across different historical periods. today, the use of time is a matter of great importance. i would like to digress by emphasizing how the control, organization and spending of time, nowadays checked by the clock, has spread enormously in the digital era. in fact, the watch has become ubiquitous and digital clocks have appeared in all electronic devices; even domestic appliances. in today's era of web 2.0, time-management through iphones and smartphone apps for diaries, calendars, and to-do lists has become an obsession.
In the field of education, time is a key issue in discussions on the success and efficiency of the education system. in simple terms, we could say that there are two approaches: those in favour of a greater commitment to time on the part of students, and those who suggest reducing the study time. According to those who support extending the school timetable, the advantages are: On the other hand, critics of this position affirm that less schooling allows families to have more influence over the growth of their children; it respects pupils' rhythms, avoiding early institutionalization (i refer here the home school movement); and it reduces the social costs of public instruction. in comparison with social, economic and anthropological studies that have attempted to capture the importance of the passing of days and seasons, time remains a lacuna in the history of education. The lack of a deep reflection on this topic -with the exception of the research carried out in France by marie-madeleine compère and scholars of the insitute national recherche Pedagogic, german scholars under the direction of Wolfgang mitterand, and a Spanish work lead by antonio Vinão Frago and agustín escolano Benito 4 -is surprising. in fact, at the heart of educational development, there are complex thought processes 5 that have evolved over time, with objective and subjective implications. We must consider objective time, controlled by the hands of the clock but, on a different scale, we can consider the social meaning of time as an event that marks different stages or new chapters in the various ages of life or, again, in terms of biological ageing 6 . the personal and subjective perception of the passage of time is very important too. time is an omnipresent category in everything we do, despite the fact that distinctions between different cultures and nations are identifiable.
this is a broad issue, and is perhaps best analyzed by a group of researchers, but for this article, I would like to offer some reflections that I hope will be the starting point of a wider research project that I have planned for the future. The first problem relates to sources. I have explored the Jesuit timetables and school day (in French les temps scolaire). this choice resulted from the fact that finding school regulations in the archives is quite easy. These sources lend themselves to international comparison across different countries and ages. i am aware that this is just one of the possible ways of investigating this field.

A Reflection on the etymologicAl meAning of school
First of all, i would like to stress that the word "school" relates to time. School, etymologically, was called scholé in ancient times, from a greek term which means "leisure" or "free time". the romans used the word otium 7 . The school was understood to be an experience where people were free from the restrictions and anxieties of work. According to this meaning, students had to pursue their own interests and needed to listen to lessons in peace. they were released from the duty of hard rural or artisan work, defined literally (negotium, not otium) 8 . the latin word ludus, which is sometimes translated into italian as gioco meaning "play", has many different meanings, depending on the context. We could use ludus to refer to a joke or a hoax, but we also used ludus litterarius or ludi magister to indicate elementary school or primary teacher. thus, the semantic of school in the classic age was quite close to other terms like free time, play, and amusement. over the centuries, for various reasons, the idea of otium took on negative meanings, especially in the educational context and in religious settings, and this connotation has continued into the modern age 9 . Dominique Julia explained how the use of time was important in the first community of schools for the poor in France. Pupils had to learn the alphabet as well as adhering to classroom restrictions. charles demia, appointed visitor of schools in lyon in the second half of the XVii century, wrote: the poor and badly educated fell into laziness, and so they can only roam, stroll around the streets and crowd around street corners, where they have nothing to do other than engage in dissolute gossip, and so they become unruly, depraved, gamblers, blasphemers and quarrelsome 10 . to get into the habit of being good pupils, they had to be busy. lessons in the christian schools started at half past seven in the morning and lasted until the afternoon. Breaks, study periods, meals and the departure at the end of the school day were closely regulated. the same was true in Italy. For example, a worried Sardinian bishop wrote this letter, in 1767: Play activities were so common that, during catechism and christian doctrine classes, you could see hordes of rural children and youngsters out of the churches playing and being lazy. they refused to accept the priests' pleading, with the cross in one hand, as in a religious parade, soliciting them to come in 11 . this behaviour became a problem when pupils grew up. indeed, many peasants and shepherds refused to attend mass or to honor the Sunday day of rest. We can say, according to michel Foucault, that setting up timetables was an "orthopedic science" of behavior. if in the XViii century, the French physician and writer Nicolas Andry de Bois-Regard (1658-1742) defined L'ortopèdie as the art of prévenir et de corriger dans les enfants les difformités du corps, by extension, the division and organization of the hours in children's lives became a form of protection for the good government both of their bodies and their souls 12 . In schools, as the day goes on, every moment has a specific duty, thanks to the surveillance of a master, in the same way that prison life is allocated according to a useful expenditure of time, under the constant watch over of guards 13 . and this is not the only similarity with a prison in the French philosopher's theory. during detention, the prisoner will be examined by the prison officers and his behaviour recorded day by day, just as the student's conduct will be checked by the teachers. Homo ludens, which in classical times, was thought to be the better part of education, later became a source of danger and risk; ideas of "leisure" or "free time" were basically treated with suspicion.

Jesuit model: RAtio studioRum
As an example of general and international school regulations, we can use the Jesuit Ratio atque insitutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu. As we know, this inflexible program of studies for teaching catechism to children and illiterate people, lecturing on philosophy and theology in the universities, and instructing youth in the grammar schools and colleges, imposed also a model designed to standardize the management of the classroom 14 . in fact, the distribution of hours dedicated to study, repetition, dispute, debates, exercises and holidays could vary according to various factors such as: regional differences, local religious calendars, and according to the context in which people were employed. But before making any change, the Jesuits had to inform the Father general, to ensure that the amendments diverged as little as possible from the common pattern 15 . Ratio had a long incubation period and underwent various adaptations from 1581 to 1599. it was the result of the international labours of renowned and experienced Jesuit educators from different provinces in various colleges and countries. With the increase in the number of colleges in europe (in italy: messina, Palermo, naples; in Spain: gandia, Salamanca, alcala, Valladolid; in Portugal: lisbon; in France: Billom; in the german empire: Wienna, ingolstadt), in the new World and in the east, it was necessary to uniform the system of education.
Plans differentiated the sequence of study, which is an especially temporal and progressive distinction, so that, "No one can be promoted from the first to the second year or from second to third if he cannot reach at least average efficiency, that is, the understanding of the knowledge gained in school and the ability to explain it" 16 . The lower classes comprised five levels -three years for grammar, followed by humanities and rhetoric. the Ratio pointed out that they "are so closely linked to each other that they never had to be re-organised or improved and in this way they keep the number of teachers down and avoid extending "more than necessary the time needed to complete elementary classes" 17 . Jesuits controlled everything: even the duration of exams "Students of metaphysics, and those going into the third or fourth year of theology, must have an examination that lasts one hour. For students of philosophy and theology, the exam lasts half an hour [...] 18 . Towards the end of the fourth year of theology, the final examination must be set. Every exam continued for more than two hours for students who wanted to become member of the company. The times set for theological debate were very long; they could last four or five hours 19 . an all-absorbing perspective infused the Jesuit colleges, so that school time included a wide range of activities not strictly scholastic, with breaks and feasts receiving special attention: "a few moments' of rest for students was necessary because of the continuous work. But, according to Ratio, it was necessary to avoid additional opportunities to celebrate, and the agreed feasts ought to be regularly observed 20 . the general rule in the underpinning the organization of vacations was that school holidays were longer for more advanced pupils and shorter for beginners. For higher classes, holidays lasted between one and two months, for rhetoric holidays one month, for humanities three weeks, for grammar (advanced classes) two weeks, and for lower classes one week 21 . the school dAy Examining the timetable for a single day, at the bottom of the timetable there is a rule that Jesuits must limit any form of leisure that could hold up studies. the strategy was to teach pupils the catechism all day. the obsession with not wasting time was so strong that during lunch and dinner, rather than chat to each other, rhetoric students were expected to say prayers, or recite latin or greek poems 23 .
Every member of staff had specific tasks in controlling students' time. The master, responsible for discipline, had power over personal study; it was up to the professor "to stay in classroom, or nearby, for at least a quarter of an hour, helping students to reviewing what they had learned during the regular classes" 24 . Only during final exams could the school day be extended until sunset, to allow students to revise 25 . Students would remain in class for "an hour a day for revision[...] excluding Saturdays and public holidays or vacations." as a practice, this would allow mental training and an understanding of what had been done in class. the prefects were required to ban "weapons, lazy people who roam or cackle [...] oaths, offensive words or acts and any dishonest and immoral behaviour" 26 . they also had to organize the time of all the students, to ensure it was spent fruitfully during the time of personal study.

time foR Religious pRActices
The day's program was strongly influenced by prayer; the day began very early between five and six o'clock, and involved praising the Lord with the te deum recited in latin with the prefect. in the chapels of the convents, daily mass was celebrated, and men took turns working in the service. Participation in the daily eucharistic communion was strongly encouraged. Prayer came before the start of each study activity, game and meal. and the prayer of the rosary closed the day before break, never late than nine o'clock p.m. Besides the prayers, silence also occupied a large portion of time. "the old Jesuits had calculated that they could 'talk' for about two hours out of twelve hours of school and study" 27 . let us look at some documents from the archives. For this research, i used material filed in the archives of the former Province of the Society of Jesus of turin. this archive houses documents on the regulations of various colleges run by the Jesuits in northern italy 28 . it is not always possible to link the regulations to the geographical location in which they were originally produced, but as i anticipated, this is not essential given that there is a perfect match in the substance, between colleges. in fact, chronological appearances are practically irrelevant since, as i found in the archives, we can see the same criteria for the organization of institutions across different centuries, with very few changes. We can also see that the fundamental principles, and the general model of teaching in the nineteenth century, was the same as that of the XVi century, and the only innovations that were introduced involved changes to the curricula and branches of study. the Jesuit regulations covered various aspects and groups people. The documents I examined are referred to as Common orders to be observed by the Lords boarders, Notices for our students, Rules of the pupils who attend the schools of the Society of Jesus, Notices for the masters, Notices to Servants, General and prefects, observando Paedagogis, General Rules for the actions of each day. the documentation refers to two key moments: the first, very close to the earliest draft of ratio from XVi and the beginning of XVii century, and the second dating back to 1847. Some choices were allowed in implementing college regulations of the boarding schools, according to the "condition of the pupils, the usages of the country, and the local customs and finances".
With regard to religious practices, it was the duty of the teachers of elementary classes to say a prayer before class and ensure that all students attended mass. in grammar classes, it was necessary to learn and recite the christian doctrine for a half-hour on Fridays and Saturdays. the spiritual training required, as we read in an italian regulation of 1886 29 : -the presence of a spiritual father always available to pupils; -continuous reference to the Sacraments through daily mass and liturgical celebrations at certain times of the year; enrolment in the marian congregations, for the best and the most devoted students, participation in the retreats led by the fathers of the company. of course, confessions were held monthly, on agreed days and times, but as one regulation stated, "a week could not pass without a visit from the father for confession, without pupils being accused of something, or being informed of some temptation or being asked for penance or advice" 30 . michel Foucault notes, perceptively, that places were assigned to students in Jesuit colleges corresponding to each function and its value, basically according to their rank 31 . he remarks on the appearance of this pyramidal organization, and shows how space and classroom rows are actually boxes within which the student was allowed to move according to strict rules of discipline. Foucault remarks that even in the Jean Baptiste de la Salle's classrooms, teachers applied a similar concept. the spatial distribution guaranteed, once again, under the watchful eye of the master, a series of distinctions, according to: "the degree of students' advancement, their values, their character and kindness, industry, state of cleanliness, and according to their parents' wealth 32 .
In addition to this spatial theory, there is a temporal dimension. Schools refined the original timeframe of the monasteries, splitting it into multiple, shorter segments. in the archived documents, we can see many examples of nineteenth-century Jesuit college timetables in which the unit of measurement for time is a quarter of an hour. Fig. 1: ammaestramenti e regole pe' collegi di educazione governati da P.P. della compagnia di gesù, 1859 "Archivio dei Gesuiti dell'Italia Settentrionale in Gallarate" (AGISG), files Collegi Regolamenti.
The picture shows that, anticipating the influence of the industrial model, and perhaps the prevalence of mechanical methods of measurement of time, the unit of measurement is subdivided as the regulations become more stringent. concerning this matter, Foucault distinguishes between the negative principle of non-idleness (not allowed to waste time) and the positive principle of the optimal use of every moment to expand the possibilities in a day. For this reason, it is considered essential to reduce the time into many small units within which the child is asked to perform a series of activities quickly and well. time, according to the French philosopher's theory, is compared to the actions of marches or gymnastics, but also in subtle and repetitive motion exercises such as writing. the Societas Jesu method unified and systematized educational principles and centralized practical rules to ensure good results in different classes and with different teachers. the prohibition on timewasting became stricter as intellectual talent increased, and as boys grew up, they gained a greater awareness of the importance of time and its proper use. in the words of dante alighieri "lo perder tempo a chi più sa più spiace" (Purgatorio iii, 78) "wasting time makes learned people sorry". the same rule common to all institutions, in italian, Spanish and French or other boarding schools was: nothing escaped the gaze of the authorities. here i reproduce the heartening message for the families who sent their sons to the "Pensionnat" under the direction on Jesuit a Freiburg in Switzerland: La vigilance des Maîtres s'étend à tous les lieux et à tous les instants. Ils s'appliquent à maintenir l'ordre et la régularité, en les faissant aimer; à prévenir les fautes ou à y remédier promptement, et à exciter ou à entretenir dan les Elèves l'émulation et l'amour de leurs devoirs 33 . hierarchies (also typical of the army, factory, and prison), the sequence of classes, interventions to accelerate or anticipate choices, the opportunity to punish or reward the best or worst students by separating them in space, but also by controlling time, were expressions of power that work "directly on time: taking control of it and ensuring its use" 34 . the need to act "in the light of the sun" occurs many times in the regulations for students. "Alerts for students" in the first half of the nineteenth century state: "use the rule of silence, do not talk with any companion in the room, do not go to the door of the other, do not stop somewhere withdrawn where the Superior cannot see you. if the Superior does not see you, god can clearly see you". Particular moderation in the movement and careful use of space was always recommended: "Be as much as you can in the room in silence, without croaking here and there, study gladly, assure you that the table and kneeling make a perfect Jesuit" 35 . Teachers themselves had to be exemplary in the efficient use of time. Before the class they must sit on a chair being on the watch, like sentinels, observing the pupils, avoiding being unemployed or intent on unnecessarily flipping registers. In learning, in a narrow sense, power shows itself as an obligation to repeat exercises, or as the granting of an unexpected break. But during the free time the prefect could not sit still at the table but had to turn to ensure that students use their time efficiently, respecting order and authority 36 .
the school time in RelAtion to the pRocesses of seculARizAtion Jesuits had to deal with the processes of secularization and organization of public education in relation to the needs of governments. this led to various compromises in the distribution of school timetable. i present only two italian cases. the establishment of the Seminary of cagliari in Sardinia dating back to 1618 was the result of the commitment of the Jesuits to the birth of a higher education system in Sardinia. this institute became the college of nobles in 1765, after a more active involvement of the noble families and the government as an effect of the reform of the island's public education system 37 . A report affirms that the king was no longer willing to endure the predominance of religious education, and expenditure of time in practices of piety. It was to implement a proper proportion between the "wide fulfilment of Christian duties", according to the model of the roman college, and the hours devoted to study 38 . less respect of religious activities would enable three hours of instruction to be added each day. and the reduction of time spent on retreats from eight days to three days, twice a year, set into the Seminary, "would provide a beneficial effect, allowing the formation good christian and honest citizens, simultaneously". through these acts, the governors claimed that the autonomy granted in the past was forgotten; Sardinia came under the control of Savoy after centuries of Spanish rule domination, in 1720. So training the offered had to correspond to the criteria of uniformity and the request of the new "commissioner". the members of the Society of Jesus had to accompany mature boarders to the recently renewed university of cagliari. other young students, i.e. boys aged between 12 and 21 years, attended the same courses of all the "low schools" of the kingdom, in seminaries.
in another part of italy (Padua) and in another era (mid-nineteenth century), a similar phenomenon occurred. in this case, the Jesuits had to review the plans of their colleges to ensure they corresponded to the one implemented in the State secondary schools. it was necessary to make the curricula of studies in the boarding school comparable with that required in non-religious high schools. the members of the company were convinced of the opportunity to teach geometry, algebra, physics, natural history, not only in seventh and eighth grade, but also in the lower classes. The decision to outsource, from the first four classes, teachers devoted respectively to Latin, Italian, history, greek, mathematics and a modern language, in this case german, answered a need to deliver a modern curriculum and intercept the possible leakage of students interested in subjects that were in line with educational demands of a society in transformation. the Jesuits, who had worked to standardize the axis of their training colleges for centuries, were forced to organize the school time according to the dictates of emerging nations, in the second half the twentieth century. But the differences between, and within countries regarding the amount of time students spend studying different subjects, the time they spend in different types of learning activities, and how learning time was allocated, are better understood if we look at the traditional humanistic roots represented by the ratio Studiorum 39 .
conclusions The analysis of time allows us to consider college first of all as a place of prayer, meditation and silence. the rhythm of the liturgy builds the calendar and the church schedules weekly and daily duties. the time is full of early and frequent retreats. the student lived in college for two purposes: Christian and civil education. The first one provided by a spiritual director, and the second by the prefect and other teachers. the numbers of lectures (table 2) was limited (from 18 to 28 hours per week). i say "limited" compared with the abundant capital available to educators, because pupils were under their care for 24 hours, for an average of 10-11 months of the year. there is not enough space here to analyse the content of the curriculum, but a quantitative analysis shows that the importance of hours of study spent on classical languages, especially in the early years of school, are particularly evident 40   We need to investigate further the way in which time is used for individual study, and also for the school lunch, vacations, attention paid to the physical welfare of the students, and playtime. these activities were actually very significant in terms of time, and received constant educational attention.
although the ideal of both the Jesuits and Protestants was the acquisition of true christian wisdom, the spread of religious colleges facilitated the adoption of a special relationship to the use of time. it was a very different use from that of the traditional monasteries. Saint Bernard said that the duty of the monks was not to teach but do penance (monachi officìum esse non docere sed lugere). For the followers of St ignatius, the religious life was part of the humanities.
I wonder if schooling could not be a significant means by which time was unified, which is one of the essential features of modernization and the dominance of a european model of education. School time becomes a time organized, productive and above all synchronized, and therefore exportable beyond local boundaries. The school, which etymologically in ancient times was called scholé and otium, that is, idleness and freedom from the troubles related to everyday life, has become obligation, work, duty.