Education in The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages or the medieval period spans between the 5th and the 15th century AD, just after the fall of the Roman Empire. During this period, there was a return to systemic agriculture and there was an increased trend towards urbanization in most societies. Religious art and architecture flourished. The fields of philosophy, mathematics and poetry saw rapid development, with Fibonacci, Oresme, Giotto, Dante and Chaucer being noted for their work in their respective fields. The middle ages contributed a lot to the development of education, as evident from the fact that the concept of universities began around this time. The tradition of wearing the cap and gown that originated in the Middle Ages is still followed today.

Medieval education was often conducted by the Church. Most cathedrals had a school to provide a free education to every boy and enforced a highly demanding course of study. Very few girls, if any, were educated at proper institutions, most girls were taught basic reading and writing at their own homes. The students were taught seven liberal arts; Latin, grammar, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, philosophy and mathematics. As compared with the dark ages, the students were encourages to get practical hands on experience of different things, and learn from the experiences of hunters and poachers about wildlife, and to learn about agriculture and livestock from farmers and peasants.

Enrollments of Agriculture Bachelors

Enrollments % of Agriculture Bachelors

Students used a bone or ivory to write on wooden tablets coated with green or black wax. Books were painstakingly written by hand and parchment for the pages was made from the dried hides of animals. Special inks had to be mixed to ensure they would set on the animal hides. Quill pens made from feathers were used for writing, and each quill was handmade to perfection and then tested to ensure that the pen worked with different strokes. The quill continued far beyond the medieval ages and was eventually replaced by the steel nib pens that we use today.

Among the most notable contributions of the Middle Ages to education are the introduction and elementary development of algebra, and the introduction of the decimal number system as well. Classical poetry also developed by leaps and bounds, and translations of books from other cultures increased the amount of knowledge available exponentially. Slowly but surely, education became available to more and more people including the children of farm workers or peasants. Many useful inventions from across the world were gathered by universities and studied by scholars. A bulk of these inventions came from research carried out by Muslim scholars; such as the telescope, the compass, gunpowder, the water clock and some unique specimens of cloth. Methods of sea navigation used by the Arabs were translated into different languages and helped open up trade routes between Europe and Asia. A huge number of books on the human body and its organs were translated into 30 different languages.

The Medieval ages saw the development of education unlike any age before - and while it is true that education for women was severely limited, the booming trade and economic success of society during the Middle Ages shows that education was beginning to be commonly accessible in society.