Renaissance Education DBQ

        As the Renaissance progressed, the notion of education as previously defined in the period changed dramatically. Contrary to preceding thought, education should focus on that which is “useful in worldly life.” By focusing too much on the liberal arts, “permanent harm” could result to a student not trained with virtue and discipline (Document 7). Michel de Montaigne called the educational system “absurd” and that rather than focusing on works with “the soundest and truest opinions”, education had instead revolved around the works “which speak the best Greek and Latin” (Document 8). This is a clear change from the attitude of the early Renaissance, which hailed the study of the classics as the path to illumination. Midway through the Renaissance, the focus of education switched from the liberal arts to the study of contemporaneous values and disciplines.

        In the later stages of the Renaissance, education through schools or universities came to be viewed as impractical and futile. In 1622, Iohn Brinsley called education at universities “a waste of money”, and stated that the attendance of such universities did little to change the proficiency of scholars, and that they “return home… as crude as when they went” (Document 10). Furthermore, it was viewed that schooling resulted in a decrease in physicality, and resulted in intolerance or belittling of other occupations. By the end of the Renaissance, it was determined that more workers were needed than scholars, and that reading and writing pertained only to a small constituency (Document 11). Educational reformers called for modifications that could accommodate the uses of practical life, calling schools “diseased”. They maintained that education should “prepare men for action”, or in other words, to prepare men to be workers and laborers (Document 12). Towards the end of the Renaissance, education came to be thought of as vain and ineffective.

        Renaissance education transformed from being considered the way to attain success, to a futile and pointless venture meant only for a small alternative group of men. At its start, the rise in Humanism encouraged education to be focused around the study of Greek and Roman classics as the gateway to knowledge. As the Renaissance advanced, this was discarded and replaced by the study of religion and ethics. Towards its later stages, education was thought of as unnecessary for the majority of the population, and was considered applicable only a small group of scholars, priests and magistrates. Clearly, Renaissance education experienced drastic changes, paralleling the massive cultural changes that came about under the era.