Secondary Curriculum and Method of Learning

Before the invention of printing, pupils listened to a teacher and took notes by hand, just as students do today. Unlike in today’s schools, students could not verify their information via the Internet or books readily available in the school library. There was no standard textbook in any of their subjects. Thus pupils learned to listen well if they wanted to excel in their studies. Whereas humanistic education mainly used classical texts, education in the vernacular focused on whatever texts the teacher decided to use or parents could provide. There were no systems of accreditation and no guidelines for the curriculum. Basically the vernacular texts read by the parents of children were those taught by their teachers. Medieval chivalric romances were popular, as well as catechisms, books about the saints, and other texts meant to encourage virtuous behavior. Although these topics may sound boring today, in an age without comic books, television, or cinema, the colorful adventures of saints spurning temptation would have held the attention of young students. Teachers also included devotional and spiritual training as part of the day-to-day vernacular classroom activity. The most widely read text in Italy was Fior di virtu (Flower of virtue), which was first printed circa 1471 and had an astonishing 56 printings before 1501. Some of these editions were illustrated with woodcuts, which could only have increased the book’s appeal to schoolchildren. These basic texts had rather simple vocabulary and grammar. They could be read easily by students who had made their way through a primer in the vernacular tongue, especially if parents helped them at home. Parents (including fathers) were encouraged to take part in their children’s instruction. Sir Thomas Elyot in The Book Named the Go'vernor (1531) wrote: “It shall be no reproach to a nobleman to instruct his own children. . . considering that the Emperor Octavius Augustus disdained not to read the works of Cicero and Virgil to his children and nephews” (Brown 1997, p. 103).