Education3

Isaac Schlenker 4/3/10 English 8-3

19. WHAT WAS EDUCATION AND SCHOOL LIKE IN Shakespeare’s ENGLAND? HOW WAS IT DIFFERENT IN URBAN/RURAL LIFE? HOW WAS IT DIFFERENT IN NOBLE/MERCHANT/COMMON LIFE??

School policies and teaching material in Elizabethan England were much different than they are today. At the time only very privileged families could afford to send their kids to school. That means that there were only private school and no public schools. The school policies were harsh and the masters were very strict. The masters could punish children much more severely than allow today. For example, they often spanked a child with a rod if that child was misbehaving. At schools children used goose quill pens to write rather than pencils. The teaching material was also very different than it is today. Most schools taught Latin. Occasionally they would teach French or Greek. There was no math, science, history or any other common classes that are used today for students. The main material was writing and reading. Rules and teaching didn’t differ that much for different schools, ages, and genders as they do today. The school system is slightly different than today’s; daycare, lower school, middle school, upper school, and college. Also, very few people attended school from today’s standards and the only people that attended were males. There were very few girls that attended, simply because it wasn’t thought fit. Some 20 percent of men and 5 percent of women were literate at the time. But by 1600 literacy rose 30 percent for men and about 10 percent for women. Young children ranged from five years old to seven years old started school at a “petty school” (also known as a Dame School), a school that covered the basics of reading and writing. After petty school some boys, usually from seven years old to ten years, moved on to grammar school. It was extremely rare to have a girls attend a grammar school. Almost every grammar school focused mainly on Latin. The school days were six to seven hours with a small fifteen-minute break. After grammar school some students went to Universities. Universities consisted of lectures and examinations, which took the form of oral disputations. There were only two Universities in all of London; Cambridge and Oxford. The schools in Elizabethan England were mainly for males and no matter what type or quality school.

Education Sources

Hinds, Kathryn. Life in Elizabethan England The City. 2008. 68-69,75-76. Print.

Ingpen, Robert, and Micheal Rosen. Shakespeare. 30-33. Print.

Murray, John. Elizabethan England. 17,22,36,45-47,65,67,147,7. Print.

Singman, Jeffrey. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. 41-49. Print.

"Elizabethan Education." Elizebethan Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr 2010. .

__**Links**__ http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-education.htm http://www.referatele.com/referate/engleza/online11/ELIZABETHAN-AGE---Education-Culture--and--Entertainment- http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-education.htm>.