Literacy and education in renaissance; based on 'English literature in Context'

Renaissance (1485-1660)

Literacy and Education

•      Writing skills were taught at six or seven after reading skills had been acquired

• ·         This was exactly the age when poorer families might withdraw their children form schooling in order to enlarge their income

• ·         By the Restoration, at least 20% of the male population on average estimated to be able to sign their names (the figure regarding women would be less than this)

• ·         the picture of a largely illiterate society is difficult to repress

• ·         the church had an enormous influence upon parents (in Medieval century also)

• ·         parents were urged to place children where they might gain instruction

• ·         the instruction being promoted is most particularly of a moral and spiritual nature

• ·         Until the reformation close textual study of Bible was reserved for those who were able to decipher Latin (only for those who were good at Latin)

• ·         as a consequence, large number of people were left alienated/dependent upon popular accounts (often oral)  of scriptural narratives or representation of them in church art

• ·         the humanist scholar William Tyndale secretly translated the Bible into English in the 1520s, but the large number of translated texts were burned publicly at the order of the Bishops of London

• ·         however, by the second half of the 16^th century about half million Bibles in English were circulating among population of 6 million inhabitants

• ·         there also emerged another lively debate among  those in intellectuals and government circles about who should and should not be educated

Institutions and teaching/learning styles/activities/techniques

• ·         education might take place for children:-

1.         in the home

2.         in the more formal setting of a tutor's or cleric's room

3.         a master's lodging

4.         more rarely, a designated school building

• ·         the concept of child learning meant learning by heart

• ·         reading aloud and group reading (particularly of religious texts) continued to be common practices

• ·         even when silent reading had become more fashionable among certain sections of the leisured  classes

• ·         there often remained great emphasis on communal readings of scripture among families, households and communities

• ·         educational choices were often dictated by the financial circumstances and geographical locations of the parents

• ·         References to initial skills being gained in 'petty' schools:-

1.      with 'hornbooks' containing alphabet

2.      The Lord's Prayer

3.      other equally basic religious texts

4.      Bible itself was the central text

• ·         Bible was a central text in the acquisition of literacy skills for both girls and boys in the later Tudor and Early Stuart periods

• ·         in general, girls were only expected to be taught reading and they were expected to devote themselves to useful occupations as needlework

• ·          the boys were later occupied themselves with writing and numeracy

• ·         there were grammar schools in the town and cities for the rich families who had strong desire to more formal educational careers for their offspring , sometimes these establishments were under the humanist scholars such as:-

1.      John Colet at St Paul's

2.      William Camden at Westminster school during Elizabeth's reign

• ·         in the grammar schools, the more literary skills of reading and writing predominated over anything we might now call arithmetical

• ·         from the middle of the sixteenth century, more and more grammar schools were being founded across the country, often supported by funds donated by:-

1.      local clerics

2.      civic corporations

3.      monied/moneyed patrons

• ·         the study, translation, dissection and memorization of Latin texts occupied the vast majority of the boys' school days, supplemented by some learning of prayers, the catechism ( a set of questions and answers that are used for teaching people about the beliefs of the Christian religion) and so on

Teaching texts and techniques in grammar schools:-

Techniques

·         the study

·         translation

·         dissection (the act of studying something closely and or discussing it in great detail)

·         memorization of Latin text

·         learning of prayers

Texts/study materials at grammar schools

• ·         Henry VIII's government instituted/introduced William Lily's Latin grammar as the standard textbook for schools

• ·         Only after the study of Lily's Latin grammar three years or so, boys would then turn to studying rhetoric (the linguistic art or persuasion), to composition in Latin and they began Greek

• ·         later studies might involve comparative grammar between classical languages, oratory and the use of commonplace books – even personal collections of proverbs, opinions and wise sayings which pupils noted separately in their own books from their classical reading matter - many of the students continued this practice to their adulthoods  

(William Lily (or William Lilly or Lilye; c. 1468 – 25 February 1522) was an English classical grammarian and scholar. He was an author of the most widely used Latin grammar textbook in England and was the first high master of St Paul's School, London)

• ·         increased population of educated emanating from the growing number of grammar schools   clearly had influence upon the founding of new colleges at Oxford and Cambridge

• ·         after a number of years in grammar schools or with a personal tutor, a small number of boys would be sent to complete their education at a particular college of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge (a few benefitting  like Christopher Marlow from a scholarship)

• ·          In the colleges, a knowledge of Latin and sometimes Greek would have been taken for granted for a new student about to commence a university career

• ·         Contemporary literature was not involved in the university curriculum. But many students did not confine within the formal structure of classes. We can mark an important pursuit of contemporary literature from the evidences in documents of the period, such as:-

1.      diaries

2.      letters

3.      pamphlets

4.      universities plays

5.      autobiographical writings

6.      religious chronicles

7.      paintings

8.      manuscripts and so on

• ·         some of the wealthier students came to the colleges to complete their formal education, the majority were preparing for later careers in law, civil administration or the church

• ·         students were compelled to attend the church service on a regular basis

• ·         at the beginning of the early modern period, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were admitting about 300 students between them each year and the figure continued to rise an peaked in 1580s and 1630s with over 400 new students welcomed annually by each universities

• ·         the curriculum was based around the trivium:-

1.      grammar

2.      dialectics

3.      rhetoric

                                       and quadrivium:-   

1.      arithmetic

2.      geometry

3.      astronomy

4.      music

• ·         university experience might be followed by attendance at the law schools in London, the Inns of court

• ·         there were all kinds of temptations on offer to the aspiring gentlemen; the acquisition of necessary cultural knowledge and access to important social, political and economic networks

 Conclusion
Education system in Renaissance was discriminatory as it focused wealthy male members of the society. Only the better off could join grammar schools because such schools were only available in the town and cities and also was not affordable for the poor. Grammar schools and colleges were reserved only for the males. Latin was the dominant language, so the study materials mostly in Latin.