What was it like to go to school in the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

1st AnswerMost people did not go to school in the middle ages. The only people who were able to read and write were the clerics. The commoners only knew what was told them. Not even royalty and nobility read until the time of Charlemagne. And then only royalty and nobility were taught to read and write. But what was it like you ask? Usually the son (and never daughter girls didn't need to know such things back then) would rise early in the morning (around 3:30 or 4:00) and walk (or ride a horse) to the local monastary. There they would sit either on a floor or (at a rich monastary) at a table or desk while a monk read or recited something. They would then memorize and learn to write it. If the boys could not memorize and write the lesson perfectly at the end of the allotted time they were beaten by the monk. Usually the lesson was from scripture or history. The lesson would end sometime between 4:00 and 8:00 pm. 2nd AnswerCharlemagne was king from 768 to 814. There were schools after his reign, and there were schools before it. The answer above reflects conventional wisdom, and it is what I was taught in school, but the evidence does not support it.

The first primary schools were opened in the East Roman Empire in the year 425 AD with the intention that all soldiers be literate. The system remained in use until the Byzantine Empire fell in 1453. A school called Cor Tewdws was opened in Llantwit, Wales sometime around 395 AD, and was still open until it was closed by Henry VIII; this meant the school opened before the Middle Ages began, and closed after the Middle Ages were over. King's School in Canterbury opened in 595, and is still open. Beverley Grammar School, in Yorkshire was opened as a state run school, not church run, in 700 AD, and remains open; for several decades, the state that supported it was controlled by Vikings. King Alfred the Great opened schools with the hope that all freemen in England who could learn become literate in English. He had translations done of important literature so people could read them without having to learn Latin. King Alfred also saw to it that his daughters learned to read. And we have a number of examples of women who were literate, including Matilda of Scotland, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie of France (a poet in England), Anna Comnena, Hildegard of Bingen, and numerous others (these are only a few I can think of offhand). The oldest school in Iceland was opened before the end of the Viking Age, and the oldest school in Lithuania was opened in Riga when Riga was a twelve year old village. There are over seventy primary and secondary schools still open from the Middle Ages, which would indicate a far greater number than that at the time. (There are links for these facts below.)

These being the facts, we know the following about conditions in the Early Middle Ages (476 to 1000 AD):

• At least some medieval schools taught in the vernacular rather than Latin.
• At least some schools were open before the time of Charlemagne.
• At least some Vikings supported and opened schools.
• At least some schools were run by secular organizations rather than the Church.
• Since some schools were run by secular organizations, at least some children disciplined in schools were not beaten by monks.
• At least some girls were taught to read and write.

In the High Middle Ages (1000 to 1300) and Late Middle Ages (1300 to 1453) education became more common and more secular. The advent of anti-scientific superstition and witchcraft was also a late phenomenon, mostly of the Renaissance and Reformation, and did not have much effect on medieval education.