What was education like in the middle ages

Until the High Middle Ages, formal education for serfs or peasants was simply never considered. Education was mostly limited to the nobility or the rich and wealthy. It was towards the late High Middle Ages that this began to change as more and more members of the nobility started to support education for the common person. Even in this period, a peasant or serf could get education only with the permission of his lord. Copyright - - - Medieval Chronicles. Share this:. Medieval Village Medieval Houses.

More Info. Popular Pages Home. Professional skills were taught in special institutions known as guilds. In the episcopal schools sacred texts were read with a global method using whole sentences. In the colleges , teaching was magisterial, by commentaries on texts. Ordinary classes where the teacher presented a subject matter were held in the morning. The afternoons were used to answer questions and to review the content. These classes were given either in a stable or in the teacher's house.

In the guilds , the secret was well kept and the teaching mostly practical. It relied on observing and copying. In general, the teaching was given orally and was encyclopaedic, founded on accepted texts and deductive logic. The episcopal schools provided the transition between the Roman grammar schools and the institutions of the Middle Ages. Of these, received a daily allowance from Elizabeth.

Elizabeth de Clare disagreed with the view that serfs should not go to school. She arranged for a large number of people who lived in her villages to be educated. She also paid for those boys who showed talent to be educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities. In Elizabeth supplied the money for the foundation of Clare College, Cambridge. This provided an education for twenty scholars. As well as donating a considerable amount of money she also became involved in deciding what the students should study.

Students at Clare College attended lectures on law, medicine, religion and the arts. Write a few sentences about the following types of school in the 14th century: a elementary song-school, b monastic school, c grammar school.

Describe what Elizabeth de Clare did to improve the education of the peasants who lived in the villages that she owned. Read law 30 of the village Custumal and source B. Those who studied in monasteries often became monks and they worked for preserving Roman and Greek texts and they wrote new books.

Mastership was necessary for a person to be able to teach at a university in The Middle Ages. Under the feudal system of The Middle Ages, women had little or no chance of attaining education. Education was rare for serfs and peasants and it was impossible for a girl or woman from a peasant background to learn reading and writing.

However, girls of upper class were given benefits of education in a few cases. There were certain obligations for women of nobility which required them to be literate.

However, the course of education for women was very limited and it was controlled by the Church. The general feeling was that women were secondary and they needed to serve and remain under protection of men. Whatever education a woman could attain was designed to help her in becoming a good wife and mother in future.

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