Renaissance Education

The Renaissance is seen as a time of great change and where a rebirth of trade, political centralization, and interest in the Classical periods of Greece and Rome emerged. As a result education also started to change, for example, Vittorino da Feltre made a model for secondary schools called The Happy House which gave scholarships to the poor, allowed girls to attend school, and taught a humanist curriculum. During the Renaissance the values and purposes of education was to gain social status or self-development and to fight oppression but these values and purposes were often challenged in order to allow absolute monarchy. Aeneas Piccolomini; Battista Guarino in Method of Teaching and Learning; and Francesco Guicciardini all support that the values and purposes of education was to gain social status or self-development. In Method of Teaching and Learning, Piccolomini states that in order to be a successful Prince, he must be educated. Without education the Prince would be “a helpless prey of flattery and intrigue” that could be easily overthrown. But if the Prince were to be educated he would be able to keep his throne (social status) because he would have the intelligence to handle any situation. (Doc. 1) Guarini states “Learning and training… are peculiar to man, for they are the pursuits and the activities proper to mankind” which infers that in order to be successful in life, one needs to get an education because learning is “proper” or comes natural to mankind. (Doc. 2) Guicciardini states that skills like “good penmanship, knowing how to ride, play, dance and sing, and dress” which are all parts of a humanist curriculum would “open the way to the favor of princes and sometimes to great profit and honors” therefore rising in social status. Francesco Guicciardini is a reliable point of view because he is an experienced statesman and historian that has seen people rise in social status as a result of a humanist education. (Doc. 6) Michel de Montaigne; John Brinsley; and John Amos Comenius support that the values and purposes of Renaissance education was to fight oppression. De Montaigne states that “our absurd educational system” has made everybody intelligent but does not teach students something that can be used in real life. The educational system should make students ready for real life situations and put them on a road to success not make fluent speakers in Greek and Latin. (Doc. 8) Brinsley talks about how young adults are going to universities and wasting everybody’s time and money. “The scholars at fifteen or sixteen years of age” are fluent in Latin but that will not be enough to reach success. Brinsley believes that the educational system should help people fight oppression; his point of view is reliable because Brinsley is an English schoolmaster who has years of experience who knows what is necessary to reach success. (Doc. 10) Comenius also supports the idea that the values and purposes of an education is to fight oppression when he mentions “Learning is not enough accommodated to the uses of our life.” Comenius believes that instead of spending time on “Grammatical, Rhetorical, and Logical toys” students should be taught skills that will help them in the real world and that will lead them to success. (Doc. 13) The Letter to Lady Ferrers of Tamworth Castle and a Letter to the Parlement concerning the reopening of a school challenge the values and purposes of an education in order to allow absolute monarchy. In the Letter to Lady Ferrers it is stated that women should only be taught “embroidery, writing, reading, and dancing” which is a common Renaissance view of women education. But this view limits women not allowing them to pursue an education in order to find a career or provide for their family. Limiting women’s education allows absolute monarchs to prosper because without a complete education women would not challenge the king. (Doc. 9) In a Letter to the Parlement it is clearly stated that education was not necessary for everybody, “schools are useful in a civilized society, but having too many of them is always a bad thing.” Absolute monarchs believe that “literature is appropriate only to a small minority of men” because strong farmers and workers are needed more than philosophers. If all men were to be educated it would eventually lead to them noticing that studying is better than a life of hard work. Without any peasants to work land, monarchs would lose power and disappear. The Letter to the Parlement clearly has a biased point of view because the letter was probably written by an aristocrat or even a monarch who fears people taking over the upper class as they become educated.
` The values and purposes of a Renaissance education was to gain social status and fight oppression but these values and purposes were often challenged to allow absolute monarchy. During the Renaissance a humanist education was taught looking to make everybody well-rounded people. It was also believed that students should be taught skills that will help them in real life. Education started to be the only way to become successful and the only way to move up in social status until this day.