Education Learning Journey

"Strange notions, has he?" said the old man. "Ah, there's too much of that sending to school in these days! It only does harm. Every gatepost and barn's door you come to is sure to have some bad word or other chalked upon it by the young rascals: a woman can hardly pass for shame sometimes. If they'd never been taught how to write they wouldn't have been able to scribble such villainy. Their fathers couldn't do it, and the country was all the better for it."
Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Book 2, Chapter 1.

Fortunately not everyone was of this opinion about education, which is why you can read this today.
Follow the steps to see how your great-grandparents fought for our education.

Click on the steps below to explore.

Education Learning Journey. Step 1. Education Before Schools Sons of rich landowners in mediaeval England would be educated by tutors, learning to read and write in French, Latin and Greek, and learning to ride and use military weapons. Rich families with many sons would be expected to send at least one into the Church, where he would be taught by Monks. Girls were taught by their mothers to be feminine and decorative rather than useful, many were married by their teens and were expected to keep a house of servants in order, entertain visitors and become mothers, with no more accomplishment than being able to spin wool, sew and sing. Children of poorer working people were expected to follow their parent's occupation and were taught from an early age the skills they needed. With the growth of trade under the Tudors, arose the merchant class, needing a new kind of education. Public schools and grammar schools were endowed by wealthy merchants, to teach Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Geography to the future merchant traders and explorers of the expanding world. Why were boys taught to read Greek and Latin? Make a list of Latin and Greek words we still use today.

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