Learning - Global9H
L
EARNING
Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild
&
Rebecca Kogen
Period 4
Global 9H
L EARNING IN THE 1100 S
Universities Emerge
Most churches wanted a better educated clergy.
Royal rulers also needed literate men for their growing bureaucracies.
Education provided hope to qualify for high positions in the church or with royal governments.
By the 1100s schools sprung up around the great cathedrals to train the clergy.
Some of these “cathedral schools” evolved into the 1 st
Universities.
L EARNING IN THE 1100 S
Student Life
The first bell rings at 5 am every morning to wake up the students for their daily prayers.
After their prayers, they have class until 10am.
They then go to their lunch and then go back to class until 5pm.
After their done with class they have a light dinner and then study for the rest of the night.
L EARNING IN THE 1100 S
Classes
Most classes were held in rented rooms or in the choir loft of a church.
7 Liberal Arts:
Arithmetic
Geometry
Astronomy
Music
Grammar
Rhetoric
Logic
L EARNING IN THE 1100 S
W
OMAN AND
E
DUCATION
Able to go to school but NOT universities!
Women were NOT allowed to practice medicine and become doctors as well as many other
“male jobs.”
A lot of women got their education in convents.
Those of noble families attended classes at Notre
Dame de Paris which was located in the French capital.
Many men believed that women should leave books and writing to the men and believed that they should pursue their “natural” gifts at home. Such as raising the children and managing the household.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE A GES
Europeans Acquire “New”
Learning
Universities received a boost from knowledge that reached Europe in the High Middle Ages.
Many of the “new” idea had originated in ancient Greece but had been lost after the fall of Rome.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE A GES
Europeans Acquire “New”
Learning
Muslim Scholarship Advances Knowledge:
Muslim scholars had translated the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers into Arabic.
Their translations and knowledge on these ancient texts spread across the Muslim world.
In the 1100s, these new translations reached Western
Europe, and they introduced a revolution in the world of learning.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE A GES
Christian Scholars Struggle with
New Ideas
The writings of the ancient Greeks posed a challenge to
Christian scholars.
Aristotle thinking started conflict with Christian belief that the church was the final authority on all questions.
Some Christian scholars tried to resolve the conflict between faith and reason.
Their method, known as scholasticism, used reason to support Christian beliefs.
Scholastics also studied the works of Muslim philosophers and Jewish rabbis.
These thinkers also used logic to resolve the conflict between faith and reason.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE A GES
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas was a famous scholastic.
One of his most famous pieces, Summa theologica, he concluded that faith and reason exist in harmony.
He also concluded that both lead to the same truth, that
God rules over an orderly universe.
Aquinas thus brought together Christian faith and classical Greek philosophy.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE A GES
New Approaches to Science and Mathematics
Scientific works, translated from Greek and Arabic, also reached Europe from Spain and the Byzantine Empire.
Christian scholars studied Hippocrates on medicine and Euclid on geometry, along with works from Arabic scientists.
As well as Hippocrates, they also studied Aristotle.
Science made little progress in Europe because most scholars still believed that all true knowledge must fit with church teachings.
It would take many centuries before Christian thinkers changed the way they viewed the physical world.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE A GES
Science and math cont.
During this period, Europeans adopted
Hindu-Arabic numerals.
This number system was much easier to use than the cumbersome system of the Roman numerals.
The Roman numerals had been a tradition throughout
Europe for centuries.
In time, the use of the Arabic number system allowed both scientists and mathematicians to make extraordinary advances in their fields.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE AGES
Medieval Literature
While Latin remained the written language of scholars an churchmen, a new writing began to appear in the vernacular.
Vernacular- the everyday languages of the ordinary people, such as French, German, and Italian.
These writings “captured the spirit” of the High and
Middle Ages.
These writings included epics, or long narrative poems, about knights and chivalry as well as tales of the common people.
L EARNING IN THE M IDDLE AGES
Heroic Epics Captivate
Across Europe, people began writing down oral traditional in the vernacular.
French pilgrims traveling the holy sites loved to hear the
chansons de geste, or “songs of heroic deeds.”
The most popular was the Song of Roland, written around 1100.
There were also many written epics such as Spain's
Poem of the Cid.
L EARNING IN THE 1100 S
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Early 1300s:
Divine Comedy written by the Italian poet Dante
Alighieri
These poems take the reader to an “imaginary journey to hell.”
Dante wrote mostly about hell but in his 3 rd section he did mention his visions of heaven.
To these “journeys” to hell, he talks with people from history who tell how they got to hell.
All of these journeys summarize Christian ethics, showing how peoples actions in life determine their fate in the afterlife.
L EARNING IN THE 1100 S
Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer was another famous writer of this time.
English writer Geoffrey Chaucer describes a band of pilgrims traveling to St. Thomas Beckett’s tomb.
Each character in his story represents each social class.
These characters included:
-a knight
-a plowman
-a merchant
-a miller
-a monk
-and a nun
