Ancient Learning
Evidence that implies teaching & learning
 Babylon
Scribe class/tablet writers/commerce/ Royal courts
 Egypt
Scribal instruction/basic literacy
 Greeks
Sophists (5th C BCE) – Greek teachers of wisdom;
spoke out on social issues, regarded as paid
teachers, and taught others how to live successfully
Ancient Learning
The “Greats”
 Socrates (469—399 BCE)
Dialectic to define essence of anything
Instruction does not require buildings—marketplace. Plato
created an academy outside of Athens (335 BCE – 529 AD)
Plato studied w/Socrates and Aristotle studied w/Plato.
Additional schools of philosophy in Greece
 Alexandria Museum, 300 BCE
Collecting place for manuscripts, attracts scholars,
research center, library holding 120,000 single books
 Similar Centers
Mark Anthony, Julius Caesar, Asia Minor
Ancient Learning
 Learning supported by Royal Court w/o much
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interference
Christian Rome replaces Greek as center of learning
Emergence of licensing of schools, allocation of
space for schools
8th C AD Church controls education to Dark Ages
11th C Europe begins to emerge from Dark Ages
Trade, commerce, formation of guilds
Pope Gregory VII supports cathedral schools to
educate clergy
Ancient Learning
Women in Education
 Education reserved for males
 Some mention of learned nuns and women
teachers of the young
 Apostle Paul stated “A woman must be a
learner, listening quietly and with due
submission. But I suffer not a woman to be a
teacher, nor should a woman be allowed to
usurp a man’s authority, but must remain
silent.”
Ancient Learning
Women in Education cont.
 Aristotle: woman was defective male 
 Role: Marriage and children or convent
 Some exceptions: Dorotea Bocci 1390
philosophy/Bologna
Ancient Learning
Early Medieval (7th -12th C in Europe)
 Obstacles to Education:
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Church main educator
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Political situation
Lack of interest
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Universities suppose to search for Classical and
Christian thought
Thought of as Vocational Institutions
Open Access
Lack of physical equipment
Ancient Learning
 Pre-1500 era
 Universities provided little social status
 11th and 12 centuries
 Universities went from Monasteries to Cathedral
schools
 Academic Life: Theology & Law (Canon)
 Subjects taught: The Seven Liberal Arts
Trivium: grammar, rhetoric, and dialect
Quadtrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music
12th C. Philosophy included
Ancient Learning
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12th Century Europe
4 Stages in the Development of the Medieval
University
Written laws – 1210 Paris reference to a written
document
Right to be sued – 1212 University of Paris sued in
Papal Court by local religious authority
Official seal – proof of existence of funds to pay debts
(Dartmouth case)
Approval to collect money and engage in transactions
– 1215 Pope gives Univ. of Paris authority to make its
own rules etc.
Ancient Learning
 Chancellor:
 Paris – had restrictive authority
 England – Broaden authority (spiritual, civil, criminal
jurisdiction)
 Students
 Teachers
 Townspeople
 University/Town relationship
 Murder
 Tavern Fights
 Hostile Mayors
Ancient Learning
 Prerequisites for becoming a student
Latin, read, write, speak, typical age: 14;
course of study: 5 years
 Letter of Recommendation
 Poor Scholars
Ancient Learning
Student schedule-Bologna 1517
Rise – 4 am
Arts Lecture – 5 am
Mass & Breakfast – 6 am
Classes – 8 to 10 am
Formal debates before noon meal
Repetitions (questions about lectures)
Lectures – 3to 5 pm
Disputations (explanation of a statement or theory) – 5 to 6 pm
Repetitions – after evening meal (beer was common)
Bed – 9 pm
 Fines (gambling, handball, swordplay, animals, prostitution)
**Only Latin spoken in the Halls**
***No weapons***
 Punishment: deprivation of commons or meals (Flogging?)
Ancient Learning
Course of Study
 Baccalaureate
5 years
Determination – exam given by a faculty member and open to the
public during lent
 Master’s
Additional study
Proscribed readings/disputations/permission to teach, pass an
exam
 PhD
1366 theology
16 years beyond master’s
35 years old
Ancient Learning
Oxford & Cambridge
The roots of US Higher Education
 Oxford
Full university towards the close of the 12th C
Specialized: Arts, civil and canon law, theology, medicine (added
13th C)
 Cambridge
Specialized: Arts, canon law, theology, civil law, medicine (later
time)
14th C students: at least 14 years, average age 15-17,
undergraduate curriculum-classical