From 'humanist' to 'Godly'? : the changing social function of education in early modern English grammar schools
This thesis explores the social function of Englandâs grammar schools between approximately 1480 and 1640, and how this changed due to the influences of both humanism and religious reform. It explores the grammar school curriculum, including instruction in Latin grammar and in rhetoric, as well as the teaching of Greek, religious instruction, and the general âexperienceâ of attending school in the early modern period; it also addresses the process of founding and administering a school, the role of the schoolmaster, and the overall purpose of grammar school education, and who within society was able to benefit from that education. This thesis argues three main points: the first is that, despite becoming part of an educational âframeworkâ which was meant to help encourage religious understanding, the religious instruction found in a grammar school was in fact a very small proportion of the curriculum compared to the study of classical literature. Second, despite contemporary criticism of the humanist curriculum of grammar and rhetoric taught in the grammar schools, this curriculum remained in place continuously throughout the early modern period. Third, the definition of an âeducatedâ person was
Hansen, Emily
From 'humanist' to 'Godly'? : the changing social function of education in early modern English grammar schools. This thesis explores the social function of Englandâs grammar schools between approximately 1480 and 1640, and how this changed due to the influences of both humanism and religious reform. It explores the grammar school curriculum, including instruction in Latin grammar and in rhetoric, as well as the teaching of Greek, religious instruction, and the general âexperienceâ of attending school in the early modern period; it also addresses the process of founding and administering a school, the role of the schoolmaster, and the overall purpose of grammar school education, and who within society was able to benefit from that education. This thesis argues three main points: the first is that, despite becoming part of an educational âframeworkâ which was meant to help encourage religious understanding, the religious instruction found in a grammar school was in fact a very small proportion of the curriculum compared to the study of classical literature. Second, despite contemporary criticism of the humanist curriculum of grammar and rhetoric taught in the grammar schools, this curriculum remained in place continuously throughout the early modern period. Third, the definition of an âeducatedâ person was
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