Universities developed out of monastery and cathedral schools --
really
what we would call elementary schools, but attended by adolescents and
taught by monks and priests. The first was in Bologna,
established
in 1088 (see map below).
with the trivium -- grammar (
All together, these subjects make
up the seven liberal arts. Liberal referred to the free
man,
the man of some property, and liberal arts were in contrast to the
practical
arts of the working poor.
All lessons taught in a grammar school
were in Latin. Lessons were taught in a way that boys had to learn information
off by heart. Whether they understood what they had learned was a separate
issue! Books were extremely expensive in Medieval England
and no school could hope to kit out their pupils with books.
Lessons frequently started at sunrise
and finished at sunset.
Discipline was
very strict. Mistakes in lessons were punished with the birch (or the threat of
it) In theory pupils would never make the same mistake again after being
birched, as the memory of the pain inflicted was too strong.
The sons of the peasants
could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission. Any
family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined.
Very few girls went to what could be describes as
a school. Girls from noble families were taught at home or in the house of
another nobleman. Some girls from rich families went abroad to be educated.
Regardless of where they went, the basis of their education was the same – how
to keep a household going so that their husband was well kept. Girls might learn
to play a musical instrument and to sing. But the philosophy of their education
remained the same – how to keep a successful household for your husband.
It is estimated that by 1330, only 5% of the total population of Europe received any sort of education
Even then education, as we understand it, was not accessible or even desired by everyone. Schools were mostly only accessible to the sons of high lords of the land.
In most kingdoms in Europe, education was overseen by the church.
The very fact that the curriculum was structured by the church gave it the ability to mould the students to follow its doctrine
Unofficially, education started from a very young age. This sort of early education depended on the feudal class of the child’s parents
Even the children of serfs would be taught the skills needed to survive by their parents. The boys would be taken out into the fields to observe and to help their parents with easy tasks, while the girls would work with the animals at home, in the vegetable garden with their mothers, or watch them weave.
Children of craftsmen and merchants were educated from a very young age in the trade of their fathers. Trade secrets rarely left a family and they had to be taught and understood by all male (and unusually, female) heirs, in order to continue the family legacy.
Young boys of noble birth would learn how to hunt and swing a weapon, while the young ladies of nobility would learn how to cook
The main subject of study in those schools was Latin (reading and writing). In addition to this, students were also taught rhetoric – the art of public speaking and persuasion – which was a very useful tool for both men of the cloth and nobles alike.
Lessons frequently started at sunrise and finished at sunset
University education, across the whole of the continent, was a luxury to which only the wealthiest and brightest could ever aspire
Since the creation of the first university in 1088
Students attended the Medieval University at different ages, ranging from 14 (if they were attending Oxford or Paris to study the Arts) to their 30s (if they were studying Law in Bologna)
The dynamic between students and teachers in a medieval university was significantly different from today. In the University of Bologna students hired and fired teachers by consensus. The students also bargained as a collective regarding fees, and threatened teachers with strikes if their demands were not met
A Master of Arts degree in the medieval education system would have taken six years; a Bachelor of Arts degree would be awarded after completing the third or fourth year. By “Arts” the degree was referring to the seven liberal arts – arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric
The sons of the peasants could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission
Any family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined
Historians today believe that this policy was another way in which authority figures attempted to control the peasants, since an educated peasant/villein might prove to question the way things were done and upset the balance of power which kept the nobles strong.
Students held the legal status of clerics which, according to the Canon Law, could not be held by women; women were therefore not admitted into universities.
This dearth of biographical information is due primarily to his station in life; he was not a noble, but the son of John Shakespeare, a leather trader and the town bailiff. The events of William Shakespeare’s early life can only be gleaned from official records, such as baptism and marriage records.
He probably attended the grammar school in Stratford, where he would have studied Latin and read classical literature.
18 married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior and pregnant at the time of the marriage.
but unfounded stories have him stealing deer, joining a group of traveling players, becoming a schoolteacher, or serving as a soldier in the Low Countries.
wrote derogatorily of him on his deathbed.
In 1594, having probably composed, among other plays, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew, he became an actor and playwright for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which became the King’s Men after James I’s ascension in 1603. The company grew into England’s finest, in no small part because of Shakespeare, who was its principal dramatist.
and the best theater, the Globe, which was located on the Thames’ south bank.
By 1596, the company had performed the classic Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That year, John Shakespeare was granted a coat of arms, a testament to his son’s growing wealth and fame.
he became a partner in the ownership of the Globe Theatre.
In a million words written over 20 years, he captured the full range of human emotions and conflicts with a precision that remains sharp today. As his great contemporary the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson said, “He was not of an age, but for all time.”