THE SCHOOL:
In the last chapter we stated that the aim of the monastic school was frankly religious. In our next chapter we hope to prove that in practice this did not necessarily mean a narrow curriculum. Here we shall briefly state that the particulars we have been able to glean on a miscellaneous collection of topics are of some interest to the educationist. The data are so few on each topic that the treatment is necessarily somewhat disconnected. In general these topics refer to school age, accommodation of students, school buildings, methods of teaching and pedagogical principles so far as they are revealed in the meagre materials to hand.
Seven years was the age at which it was thought schooling should begin.[259] We do not know exactly what provision was made for young boys of this tender age, but we know that in case of the older students a few resided in the school itself, so it is possible that the younger children also resided in the school or in the houses of the teachers. Many of the students lived in the houses of people in the neighbourhood of the school, but the majority lived in huts which they built for themselves near the school. Where the school was a large one these huts were arranged in streets.[260] The poorer students lived in houses with the richer ones whom they waited upon and served, receiving in return food, clothing, and other necessities. Some even chose to live in this matter, not through poverty but through a self-imposed penance.[261]
There were no spacious lecture halls; the master taught and lectured and the pupils studied very much in the open air, when weather permitted.[262] Judging by the large number of monks in every monastery and recalling the fact that teaching was regarded as a most meritorious form of labour, we are inclined to think that there was a great deal of individual teaching, or at least teaching in small groups, especially when the weather was unfavourable for outdoor lectures. This conjecture derives some support from Bede, who informs us that of the Anglo-Saxons who went to Ireland many of them passed from one master’s cell to another for instruction.[263]