Would You Make a
Are you rich?
No? Oh dear, you don’t stand much of a chance
then. You had to come from a background that at
least meant that you weren’t required to work all
day in the fields or family business and that you
could afford the fees or be in a position of wealth
and authority that entitled you to free education.
Without this background you would probably
become an apprentice to a family member or
other skilled worker, learning “on the job”. School
hours were too long to combine education and
work; for example, Tudor school children were
expected to attend school 13 hours a day for
five and a half days a week in the summer time,
and 40-44 weeks a year. That is approximately
2000 school hours a year, twice the modern day
requirement.
The majority of schooling was delivered by
the church. If you were lucky and lived near a
religious establishment prepared to run lessons,
you might be able to attend small, informal
schools in parish churches, song schools
in cathedrals, almonry schools attached to
monasteries, chantry schools or guild schools.
However you learned by rote or from a horn book (an alphabet primer framed in wood and covered
with a thin plate of transparent horn), and the curriculum of these schools was limited to basics;
learning the alphabet, psalters, and religious rites and lessons such as the Ten Commandments and
the Seven Deadly Sins. In towns during the Tudor and Elizabethan periods Petty or “Dame” schools
arose for children aged 5-7. Taught by a local housewife their focus was on lessons in behaviour and
the catechism.
As trade towns grew, preparatory grammar and grammar schools were established, often sponsored
by wealthy local merchants, where children learned Latin grammar, composition and translation.
Although there is no record showing it, it is believed that, due to his father’s position as an Alderman,
Shakespeare attended the King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford between the ages of 7 and 13
or 14. Children of really rich families might find themselves at elite, privately endowed boarding schools
like Winchester and Eton.
At the age of 13 or 14 this formal education ended for the majority of boys. If you had a scholarly
aptitude you could continue to study at a university. Oxford and Cambridge were established as
centres of learning in the 12th and 13th centuries.
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