Medieval Education PDF

MEDIEVAL EDUCATION EDUC2 - THE TEACHING PROFESSION MR. ANGELO PORCIUNCULA INTRODUCTION oHistorians designate the millennium between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance (c. 500–1400) as the Middle Ages, or medieval period ospanned the time between the end of the Greco- Roman classical era and...

MEDIEVAL EDUCATION EDUC2 - THE TEACHING PROFESSION MR. ANGELO PORCIUNCULA INTRODUCTION oHistorians designate the millennium between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance (c. 500–1400) as the Middle Ages, or medieval period ospanned the time between the end of the Greco- Roman classical era and the beginning the modern period ocharacterized first by a decline in learning and then by its revival by Scholastic educators oAfter the Roman Empire in the west collapsed, the Catholic Church, headed by the pope in Rome, partially filled the resulting political, cultural, and educational vacuum  Formal primary education - church in parish, chantry, and monastic schools Medieval Education Secondary level - both monastic and cathedral schools offered a general religious studies and a liberal arts curriculum Access to Schooling ◦ Universities such as Paris, Bologna, Salerno, Oxford, and Cambridge provided higher education, namely in theology, law, and medicine ◦ Merchant and craft guilds also established vocational schools to train their apprentices in specific trades ◦ Knights, the military aristocrats, learned military tactics and the chivalric code in the castles ◦ class and gender limited schooling to only a small minority ◦ majority of students were men, studying for religious careers as priests or monks ◦ majority of people were serfs, who were usually illiterate and worked on the estates of feudal lords Education of Women ◦ varied according to their socioeconomic class ◦ stressed women’s spiritual equality; the sacramental nature of marriage, women continued to be consigned to traditional gender-prescribed roles ◦ girls of the serf and peasant classes learned household and child-rearing chores by imitating their mothers ◦ women of the noble classes also followed the prescriptions of their class and learned the roles appropriate to the code of chivalry, which often meant managing the domestic life of castle or manor ◦ The medieval church provided an educational opportunity for women through its religious communities ◦ convents, like monasteries, had libraries and schools to prepare nuns to follow the religious rules of their communities ◦ limited possibilities for women’s education - medieval schools and universities were reserved for men, guaranteeing male dominance of society INFLUENTIAL FIGURES DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179 CE) ◦ noted scholar; was educated as a nun in the Benedictine order ◦ St. Hildegard was the abbess (superior) of a Benedictine convent in Germany, where she directed the nuns’ religious and educational formation ◦ scholar, teacher, writer, and composer, like most of the medieval educators followed a Christian religious frame of reference ◦ Her religious texts, The Ways of God and The Book of Divine Works, were written to guide the spiritual development of women in her community ◦ versatile educator; composed religious hymns; wrote medical tracts about the causes, symptoms, and cures of illnesses Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE) ◦ a Dominican theologian at the University of Paris ◦ primarily concerned with reconciling authorities - linking Christian doctrine with Aristotle’s Greek philosophy ◦ used both faith and reason to answer basic questions about the Christian concept of God, the nature of humankind and the universe, and the relationship between God and humans ◦ humans possess both a physical body and a spiritual soul ◦ although humans live temporarily on Earth, their ultimate purpose is to experience eternity with God in heaven ◦ He agreed with Aristotle that human knowledge begins in sensation and is completed by conceptualization SCHOLASTICISM ◦ Developed by medieval educators in the 11th century ◦ a method of theological and philosophical scholarship, and teaching ◦ adhered to the scriptures and doctrines of the Christian faith and human reasoning, especially Aristotle’s philosophy, as complementary sources of truth ◦ believed that the Bible and the teachings of the Church were revealed supernatural truths ◦ human mind could deduce natural principles that, when illuminated by scriptural authority, also led to the truth Role of the Teachers ◦ In de Magistro (Concerning the Teacher), Aquinas portrayed the teacher’s vocation as combining faith, love, and learning ◦ Teachers need to be contemplative and reflective scholars, expert in their subjects, active and skilled instructors, and lovers of humanity ◦ For preservice teacher education, Aquinas suggests that prospective teachers have a vocation, a calling to teach, and possess an in-depth knowledge of their subject matter Subject-Matter ◦ Scholastic teachers were clerics, and schools were governed and protected by the church ◦ The curriculum was organized into formal subjects, following the Greco-Roman liberal arts tradition; for example, in higher education the subject disciplines were logic, mathematics, natural and moral philosophy, metaphysics, and theology ◦ In their teaching, Scholastics used the syllogism— deductive reasoning—to create organized bodies of knowledge ◦ They emphasized basic principles and their implications ◦ In addition to formal schooling, Aquinas recognized the importance of informal education through family, friends, and environment ◦ Aquinas’s philosophy, called Thomism, has influenced education in Catholic schools, where it serves as the basis of a school-faith community; influenced humanists such as Robert Hutchins, Jacques Maritain, and Mortimer Adler RENAISSANCE AND CLASSICAL HUMANISM RENAISSANCE ◦ transitional period between the medieval and modern ages; began in the fourteenth and reached its zenith in the fifteenth century ◦ characterized by a revived emphasis on the humanistic aspects of the Greek and Latin classics ◦ Like the medieval Scholastics, Renaissance educators, called classical humanists, looked to the past rather than the future ◦ Unlike the Scholastics, however, classical humanists based their teaching more on literature than on theology ◦ Italy – the artistic and literary center of the Renaissance ◦ humanists saw themselves as critics and “custodians of knowledge” ◦ Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the great writers of their age, wrote in the Italian language rather than in Latin ◦ Italian nobles established humanist schools to educate their children in the revived classical learning Coutier ◦ From their study of the Greek and Latin classics, humanist educators discovered models of literary excellence and style and constructed the courtier as the ideal of the educated person ◦ Baldesar Castiglione (1478–1529) in The Book of the Courtier portrayed the courtier as a tactful and diplomatic person, who having received a liberal education in the classical literature, served his ruler with style and elegance  THE HUMANISTS ◦ The Renaissance humanist educators were literary figures—writers, poets, translators, and critics ◦ Artist-teachers, critics of society and taste, they brought wit, charm, and satire as well as erudition to their work ◦ They sought to educate critically minded people who could challenge existing customs and expose and correct mediocrity in literature and life ◦ In northern Europe, classical humanist scholars, by critically examining medieval theological texts, paved the way for the Protestant Reformation ◦ But Renaissance humanists often kept a distance between themselves and the mass of people, distilling their conception of human nature from a carefully aged literature ◦ Humanist education was for the connoisseur; it was not provided to everyone but reserved for an elite  The Humanist Education ◦ The Renaissance did not dramatically expand school attendance ◦ Humanist preparatory and secondary schools educated children of the nobility and upper classes ◦ Elementary schools served the commercial middle classes ◦ Lower socioeconomic-class children received little, if any, formal schooling Desiderius Erasmus (1465-1536 CE) ◦ the leading classical humanist scholar of the Renaissance, described the model teacher as a cosmopolitan Christian humanist ◦ Erasmus emphasized the unifying features of Christianity that were common to all believers rather than the doctrines that separated them ◦ Although he could be sarcastic in his criticisms, Erasmus also had a gentle disposition when it came to the education of children The Humanist Teacher for Erasmus ◦ parents and teachers should be worthy cultural and ethical models for their children ◦ recognized the importance of shaping a child’s predispositions to education early in life ◦ A teacher’s worldview and academic preparation were highly important for successful teaching as a humanist educator ◦ Teachers needed to have an ecumenical and global outlook that was not limited by narrow interests ◦ As part of their preservice preparation, teachers needed to be well educated in the liberal arts, especially in the classical Greek and Latin languages and literature and in history and religion ◦ most concerned with the teaching of literature ◦ suggested motivating students to read good books by having them explore an author’s meaning in their own lives The Humanist Teacher for Erasmus ◦ encouraged teachers to use conversations, games, and activities to illustrate a book’s meaning ◦ Erasmus developed the following method for teaching literature: 1. present the author’s biography 2. identify the type, or genre, of the work 3. discuss the plot 4. reflect on the book’s moral and philosophical implications 5. analyze the author’s writing style Opposition to Violence ◦ Erasmus’ conveyed his opposition to war and violence in The Education of the Christian Prince (1516) ◦ He advised those who would tutor a prince to make sure that he learned as much as he could about the people of his kingdom—about their traditions, customs, work, and problems ◦ Unlike Machiavelli, who urged that the king should rule by fear and manipulation, Erasmus advised the prince to gain the love of his subjects and to study the arts of peace, especially diplomacy, and avoid war Contribution of the Renaissance Education ◦ Renaissance humanists emphasized knowledge of Latin and Greek as hallmarks of the educated person ◦ classical humanist preference shaped Western secondary and higher education ◦ Knowledge in Latin as part for admission in many colleges and universities in Europe and the United States, until the late 19th century ◦ Erasmus and other Renaissance educators were moving to a humanistic, or human- centered, conception of knowledge ◦ Humanist educators explored their concerns through literature rather than scientific inquiry ◦ The humanists’ approach was later challenged by Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Spencer, and Dewey, who all argued against instruction that emphasized literature exclusively while neglecting experience ◦ Invention of the printing press in 1423 in Europe advanced literacy and schooling dramatically Contribution of the Renaissance Education ◦ Before the printing press, students painstakingly created their own copy of a text by taking dictation from teachers ◦ The university lecture was essentially an experience in which students recorded their professor’s words ◦ In the mid 15th century, Europeans were experimenting with movable metal type in printing ◦ Johannes Gutenberg, a German jeweler, invented a durable metal alloy to form letters for the printing press; His Bible, in 1455, was the first major book printed thus printing spread throughout Europe, multiplying the output and cutting the costs of books; it made information accessible to a larger reading population ◦ The printing press inaugurated the “information revolution” ; it was a momentous technological innovation whose consequences recollect that of the advent of computer information dissemination RELIGIOUS REFORMATION AND EDUCATION REFORMATION PERIOD ◦ The Protestant religious reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries was stimulated by significant social, economic, and political changes in Europe ◦ Humanist criticism of scholastic authorities weakened the Catholic Church’s central authority to enforce religious conformity ◦ Economic innovations generated the rise of the middle classes who began to resist the older aristocratic political authorities ◦ Emergence of centralized national states shifted people’s loyalty to their own monarchs and away from the Pope ◦ Protestant religious reformers (including John Calvin, Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, and Ulrich Zwingli) sought to free themselves and their followers from papal authority and to interpret their own religious doctrines and practices REFORMATION PERIOD ◦ the Protestant reformers formulated their own educational theories, established their own schools, structured their own curricula, and reared their children in the reformed creeds ◦ Reformation leaders concerned themselves with questions of knowledge, education, and schooling because they wanted these powerful weapons to advance the Protestant cause ◦ they asserted that every person had the right to read the Bible as the central source of religious truth (on the question of knowledge) ◦ Vernacular schools – was established to instruct children in their common spoken language, these primary schools, conducted under denominational control, offered a basic curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion ◦ Catholic liturgies remained in Latin rather than vernacular languages, although, to compete with Protestants, Catholic schools also began to teach vernacular languages along with Latin Catechism ◦ Both Protestants and Catholics used schools to indoctrinate children with “correct” religious beliefs and practices ◦ Only members of the officially sanctioned church were hired as teachers, and teachers were carefully supervised to teach approved doctrines ◦ To ensure doctrinal conformity, religious educators developed the catechistic method of instruction ◦ teacher supervision and licensing developed during the Reformation period ◦ In question-and-answer form, catechisms summarized the denominations of doctrines and practices ◦ Although memorization had always been a feature of schooling, the catechistic method reinforced it; the belief was that if children memorized the catechism, they would internalize the doctrines of their church ◦ Thus, the question-and-answer format gained such a powerful hold on schools that it was also used in teaching secular subjects such as history and geography The Reformation Education ◦ Rising literacy ◦ Increasing school attendance - reformers wanted both girls and boys to attend the primary vernacular schools ◦ Protestant reformers continued to reserve the prestigious classical humanist preparatory and secondary schools for upper- class boys ◦ Preparatory and secondary schools such as the German gymnasium, the English Latin grammar school, and the French lycée prepared upper-class boys in Latin and Greek, the classical languages needed for university entry ◦ Elite was destined for leadership roles in the church and state Martin Luther (1483-1546 CE) o stands out as one of the most important religious reformers in shaping Western history and education ◦ An Augustinian monk in Germany, Luther had grown increasingly critical of Catholic practices ◦ In 1517 at Wittenberg, he posted his famous Ninety-five Theses on the door of the castle church, challenging the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church ◦ Luther’s challenges were a catalyst for the Protestant Reformation, which spread throughout Western Europe Education as Part of Religious Reforms ◦ recognized education as a potent ally of religious reformation ◦ saw church, state, family, and school as crucial reform agencies ◦ Believing that the family had a key role in forming children’s character and behavior, Luther encouraged family Bible reading and prayer ◦ Luther also wanted parents to make sure that children had vocational training so they could support themselves as adults and become productive citizens Luther on Schooling ◦ Luther’s “Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of All Cities of Germany in Behalf of Christian Schools” advised public officials to take educational responsibility and emphasized schooling’s political, economic, and spiritual benefits ◦ Schools should be organized and inspected by state officials to make sure that teachers were educating children in correct religious doctrines and training them to become literate, orderly, and productive citizens ◦ Advanced education in the gymnasium and in universities would prepare well- educated ministers for the Lutheran Church Luther on Education for Women ◦ reflected traditional restrictions but also contained liberating ideas ◦ Influenced by Saint Paul, believed that the husband, as the head of the household, had authority over his wife ◦ Domestic duties and childrearing remained women’s appropriate roles ◦ On the other hand, Luther’s emphasis on reading the Bible in one’s own language meant that girls as well as boys were to attend primary schools ◦ Schooling thus gave women a shared, if subordinate, role in educating their own children Peter Melanchthon (1497-1560 CE) ◦ In 1559, Melanchthon drafted the School Code of Würtemberg, which became a model for other German states ◦ The code specified that primary vernacular schools be established in every village to teach religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, and music ◦ Classical secondary schools, gymnasien, were to provide Latin and Greek instruction for those select young men expected to attend universities Reformation’s Contribution ◦ The Protestant Reformation reconfirmed many institutional developments from the Renaissance, especially the dual-track system of schools ◦ While vernacular schools provided primary instruction to the lower socioeconomic classes, the various classical humanist grammar schools prepared upper-class males for higher education ◦ European colonists in turn brought this two-track school structure to the New World ◦ Through their stress on Bible reading, Protestant reformers also bequeathed to later educators the all- important emphasis on literacy; this attitude helped accelerate the movement toward universal schooling ◦ Religion has had a tremendous impact on education and schooling from ancient times through the twenty- first century ◦ Many schools were controlled by churches, temples, and mosques ◦ In the 18th century, however, religious influence over education was challenged by the naturalism and rationalism of the eighteenth century (Age of Reason – Enlightenment) ENLIGHTENMENT The Age of Reason Contribution to Education ◦ Unlike the Medieval scholastics and Renaissance humanists who based their ideas about education on the past, the Enlightenment philosophers, scientists, and educators examined the present and looked forward to the future ◦ Rather than relying on tradition, Enlightenment educators emphasized using reason and the scientific method to improve the present situation and to create a better future ◦ Use of scientific method of empirical observation to discover how nature and the universe worked ◦ In education, observed children, especially their stages of development, play, and activities to construct a natural method of instruction Contribution to Education ◦ The educational reformers—Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and the progressive educators, were influenced by the Enlightenment view that children were naturally good and that teachers should base instruction on children’s interests and needs ◦ Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson’s influence of political ideology ◦ Enlightenment ideas took root in the United States, where they developed into an optimistic faith in political democracy and universal education ◦ They influenced Franklin’s emphasis on utilitarian and scientific education and Jefferson’s arguments for separation of church and state and education in state- supported schools ◦ Convinced of their ability to direct their own future, Americans saw education as the key to progress Source: ◦ Ornstein, A.C & Levine D. U (2008). Founda'ons of educa'on. Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 77-87