Education During The Middle Ages

Although many people were illiterate in the Middle Ages, this time period was also the beginning of the university system and more widespread education. The development of the educational system in the Middle Ages was a crucial step in the development of the western world, and ultimately evolved into today’s university system. Classical, medieval education, and the educational tactics used in the Middle Ages are still prevalent today in the United States, and other countries’ higher educational systems. In this paper I will examine the education systems in place during the Middle Ages, including the aspects of student life, the subjects that were taught and how they were taught, and how all of these aspects evolved into the modern university

The masters established criteria for certification, created basic rights, curriculum, schedules, and helped the students throughout their schooling (Stiles, Medieval Thought). Their job was somewhat like a combination of a dean and an advisor in the modern system. At Bologna, and other universities, there were “three main types of schools: the episcopal and municipal schools of letters, the lay schools of roman law, and school of canon law at one or more of the monasteries” (Knowles, p. 159). Out of those three schools, the lay schools are what most resemble the universities of today, mainly because they fell entirely outside of the control of the bishop and the church (Knowles, p.159). In the beginning, teachers had little to no say at universities, but as time went on the system changed, looking more similar to the modern one, and salaried professors obtained more control over the universities (Knowles, p.161). This shift in power is the main difference between modern universities and medieval universities. In the first universities teachers were expected to be subservient to their students, even being subjected to fines if a class started a minute early or ended a minute late, if he did a poor job at explaining a difficult reading, or if he failed to complete all of the material in the syllabus (Knowles, p.

Grammar, rhetoric, and logic were grouped together as the trivium set and the other four courses, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music were the quadrivium set of classes (“The Rise of Universities”, p. 87). Although there are many other courses offered in modern universities, the grouping of classes into trivium and quadrivium sets resembles the modern grouping of general education courses versus major specific