The Historical Child / Paidology; The Science of the Child

by Oscar Chrisman

Ball-playing was engaged in during the Middle Ages, just as in all ages and in all countries. The ball was, perhaps, more of a favorite in England than in any other country in Europe. They had club-ball, one player throwing the ball and another striking it with a straight club; cambuc or bandy-ball was probably a kind of golf, as the ball was struck on the ground with a curved club, called a bandy; pall-mall must have been a kind of croquet, as a wooden ball was used which was struck with a mallet and driven through arches of iron, there being an arch at each end of the grounds; in hand-ball the ball was struck with the palms of the hands against a wall or over something, being somewhat like tennis without a racket, and then later tennis with net and racket came to be played; there was foot-ball, the ball being kicked about by the foot.

Tip cat was a game played with a piece of wood called a cat, pointed at each end much like a double cone, which was laid on the ground in the center of a large ring; the player would strike one end of the cat with a stick, causing it to fly upward, which he then tried to strike to knock it out of the ring. There was bowling, many villages having bowling-greens. They also played quoits, fox and geese, and other kinds of outdoor games.

Young people played in the games and indulged in the sports mentioned in the foregoing and children played many of them, and also they had many other sports, such as spinning tops, catching butterflies and beetles, playing blind man's buff, and the like.

Education.

These schools began more and more to come under the influence of the old pagan culture and to drift away from their original purpose of giving religious instruction and to enter more upon the intellectual side. To counteract this they were finally taken away from the laity and brought under the influence of the clergy and came to be established in connection with the churches and then these schools became to be known as cathedral schools. They then gradually grew to become used for the training of the clergy. When monasteries arose in connection with the Christian church, there grew up in them schools for the training of those who were to become monks or priests. Thus education became to be less common than under Roman civilization and the schools to be used mostly for those who were to enter more directly into the work of the church.

One of the marked characteristics of the Middle Ages was the growth of the idea of education for all classes. In the early part of the period education was not considered highly important for any one, then came the idea of education for those who were to enter into clerical duties, and then last of all began to grow up the idea of education for all, whatever the future life work might be. That classical learning in its essential features was preserved to Europe was due to the Christian church, for keeping up the use of the Latin language the churchmen were thus given access to the written works of Roman culture and through them much was retained, especially in the monasteries. While the Roman civilization was almost annihilated in the central part of the empire, the extreme eastern and western parts were relatively undisturbed and classical learning was maintained in them, Ireland being the chief center in the West, from whence later this learning was returned to the central part of Europe. There were three distinct outbursts of learning following the darkest time of the period, the first being under Charlemagne (742-814) in France and Central Europe, the second in England under Alfred the Great (849-901), and the third under the Mohammedans in Spain.

The course of study in the schools of the Middle Ages was primarily designed to train the clergy to be able to participate in the church services and also to conduct them. The instruction was given in the elementary or song school which was followed by the grammar school and then by higher instruction. In the elementary school reading, writing, music, arithmetic, and Latin were taught. In reading the beginner was taught by the alphabetic method and when reading was begun careful attention was given to enunciation and accent and often boys were taught to read well without knowing the meaning of the words of the Latin they were reading. In writing wax tablets were used in the earlier times and then there came into use pen, ink, and parchment. This was an important phase of education because of the need of copying books. Music was an important subject because of its use in the church service. Arithmetic was begun by counting and then simple operations on the fingers, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing being drilled into the pupils through oral work, but little written work being done. Latin was only of an elementary form, a beginning in conversation being made. The student who went on with his studies took up the subjects of the trivium—grammar, rhetoric and dialectic. If he wished to pursue his studies further he entered into the subjects of the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

There were three kinds of medieval church schools—the monastic school, the cathedral school, and the parish school. The monastic school occupied a place within the monastery and it was primarily intended for those who were to enter into monastic life; there were no charges for tuition, the school being maintained through gifts from pupils, sometimes such being quite large; the poor pupils were supported by charity or they paid their way by copying books or by doing other things. In the cathedral school there was usually a song school, for elementary instruction, and a grammar school, for those who should want more advanced education. As assistants in the smaller churches needed instruction, parish schools were established, in which there was but little training given beyond that needed for participation in the church services.

Lay education arose in this period in three ways. In the first place it came through the education and training of those intended for knighthood, as such produced standards of deportment that impressed themselves upon the upper classes in such a way that as civilization advanced and means of intercourse widened there came a need of systematic instruction so that there arose the great public schools of England and similar schools upon the continent. In the second place the growing importance of the cities in industry and commerce led to the establishment of schools for the training of the city youth, so that the burgher school was produced. Under the guild system there arose a kind of industrial education and the need of means of instruction of the young of the guild members so that guild schools were formed.

During the period following the fall of Rome, the culture and learning of Greece and Rome were almost entirely lost to central and western Europe. Only here and there was a little retained, usually in some monastery where some of the old manuscripts were stored away. Yet learning was never entirely lost, and when the Crusades arose and the people of the West came in contact with the old Greek culture in eastern Europe and with the scientific learning of the Moslems, and who brought learning again into Spain, they brought back with them a widening interest in learning. Too, as commerce grew and wealth increased there became more leisure for learning and there grew up a desire for further knowledge and, so to the education as discussed in the foregoing paragraphs there was added a still higher form, that of the university.