8-2Education

What was education like in Elizabethan England? //Answer prepared by Colin H.// In Elizabethan England, education was not observed in the same way it is today. In general, boys were the only ones who attended schools. Normally, the girls would stay and learn at the homes they lived in, including learning reading and arithmetic. In this era, the young boys, from the ages of five to seven, would attend “Petty School”. The term derives from the French word “petit”, meaning small, ergo an elementary school of young children. These Petty Schools would also be referred to as “Dame Schools” because the people who would teach the children would normally be a local housewife or a dame. At these schools, the most important things to learn were the reading and writing of the English and Latin language and catechism, or the beliefs and summary of Christianity. Also, at these schools, children learned how to be a “good Christian” and how to behave properly. This is the way children began to get educated in the Elizabethan era.

Nobles in the Elizabethan England era were educated differently. They would not go to Petty Schools like other boys would. They would be privately tutored in their house from the age of seven to fourteen. The children of a lower standing, or lower nobles, would move on to Grammar Schools. The school and education was a step up from the Petty Schools, like how an elementary school leads up to a middle school. Grammar Schools were financed by the local Guild. The local Guild gave the Grammar Schools money and paid for the supplies needed to run the school. The younger boys would spend their early childhoods being taught by Ushers, a junior master or senior pupil at the Grammar School. The first year of Elizabethan education would have consisted of learning parts of speech together with verbs and nouns. The children had much to learn in school, but they were also taught much in Latin. They were expected to translate it English to Latin and Latin to English. A boy caught speaking English without permission in school would be punished. 50 strokes of the cane was an uncommon punishment, but a severe and painful one. William Shakespeare attended King Edward IV Grammar School. He finished school at the age of 14 due to the financial problems of his father. The Grammar Schools were the main source of education in Elizabethan England.

Works Cited

"Early Jobs." __Shakespeare's Career__. 12 Mar 2009 .

"Elizabethan Education." __William Shakespeare__. 2005. 8 Mar 2009 .

Ros, Maggi. "What Every Schoolboy Knows." __Life in Elizabethan England__. 27 March 2008. 8 Mar 2009 .

