Index Women's Education (Essay) Introduction Women's Education in the Tudor Period: A Research Conclusion Women's Education (Essay) There are some important background information that one must try to navigate and examine the reader when it concerns female education. In this essay it would be remiss to simply use the case study of men to investigate literacy rates among people in the Tudor period and ignore women during this period. Therefore, it is important to gain some understanding of what women were supposed to learn and how they were educated. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay IntroductionMany women were taught within their own family or within the church community, which has been problematic for historians due to the lack of sources for that period on this topic offered. There have been a number of different historical debates on the subject of women's education in Tudor England which have shown that "the education of women in Tudor England was differentiated according to gender laws from that of boys in terms of advanced outlook, nature and range of subjects taught". and the social purpose of education”. It was an exception that women were taught a wide range of subjects, including Princess Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, the daughters of Thomas Moore, Anthony Cooke and Henry Fitzgerald who essentially had access to male educational opportunities. Margret Sommerville suggested that "the classical, scriptural, pathic, and medieval authorities on which the Renaissance was based shared basic assumptions of women's intellectual inferiority to men, and some writings questioned whether women were in fact rationed beings." A way in which historians can investigate the topic of female literacy and their educational competence. Sommerville engaged in a wide range of research on the topic of women's letters where she found that “About 390 or 60% of women were indicators of the nobility, 30% of women writers, approx. 19% were from the nobility and 15% were female courtesans. This illustrates the exclusive nature of education for women during the Tudor period. It can be argued that this challenges the theory of RD Attick and Cressy, who suggest that education was more widespread and more accessible than initially believed, which may offer a narrow view. It is true that male education was more prevalent than historians initially assumed in deterring from educational opportunities. Yet there was a lack of differentiation in women's education because only at the top of society were offered the wide range of subjects offered to men. Female Education in the Tudor Period: A Research Historians can use this narrative, but it is difficult to gain insight into understanding how education developed and occurred over time, without using primary sources. Analyzing primary sources can help you get a sense of how education has developed over time. For example, King Edward VI Stratford Grammar School, which was an incredibly noble school where those in high priority positions attended. Children of noble birth were invariably educated by tutors at first but, from ages 7 to 14, children of lower status attended Grammar Schools, the most common institution for Elizabethan childcare and education during the Elizabethan period. The Grammar School in Stratford was called King Edward Grammar School and William Shakespeare would have started attending the Elizabethan Grammar School at the age of seven: hiseducation really began. The school and education would be funded by the local Guild. Younger boys, including Shakespeare, would have spent their early childhood following the teachings of Ushers, a junior master or senior student at the Grammar School. This short introduction to grammar and education, performed by William Lily, had been authorized by Henry VIII as the only textbook of Latin grammar for use in education and schools. In 1558 a child's spelling was written in England as the consistency of spelling gradually emerged. In the first year of Elizabethan education the circle would have consisted of learning parts of speech along with verbs and nouns. The Ushers often refused to bother teaching handwriting and this element of Elizabethan education was often taught by a temporary itinerant scribe for a few weeks during school. From the age of 10 the boys left the Ushers to study with the Masters of the King Edward VI Grammar School thus continuing with their translations and extending their Elizabethan education by studying the works of the great classical authros and dramtislst, such as Ovid, Plautus, Horace , Virgil, Cicero and Seneca. The stories of Caesar, Sallust, and Titus Livy were also studied, as their moral example was deemed relevant to life in Elizabethan England and therefore individualized in their upbringing. This was the basis of Elizabethan childhood and the education of Elizabethan children, including William Shakespeare, and may have also included the study of Greek, but textbooks were scarce and only the best teachers had enough experience to teach the language. Salaries offered by King Edward VI Stratford Primary School were £10 per annum for a master's degree and £40 per annum for the headteacher and were on a par with the leading schools in England. This then attracted some of the more experienced teachers. It is also likely that two Oxford graduates, Ben Hunt and Thomas Jenkins, were employed as Elizabethan education masters at the time William Shakespeare attended King Edward VI Stratford Grammar School. These references made it clear that William Shakespeare's childhood and the Elizabethan education he received at King Edward VI Stratfor Grammar School were of high quality. Some historians have suggested that research into illiteracy and literacy has been rather negligent and lacking in real substance. . There are some fantastic historians like Cressy and Holt who offer a lot on the topic. However, perhaps the depth of the topic may not be there. This conveys the importance of researching and discussing these issues. A rather obscure issue regarding literacy is that of charity schools which have done much to spread literacy and educational opportunities. For example, between 1595 and 1604 there was an increase in merchant literacy that some historians have linked directly to charity schools. While we have yet to discuss women's literacy, it is widely accepted that female illiteracy was much more widespread than male illiteracy. Level H suggested that it was the social structure that had an impact on illiteracy levels and was consistent with the social perimeters placed upon it. each social hierarchy. He insists that “the yeomen have never approached the rank of gentlemen while the farmers have always been inferior to the yeomen. Within the composite category of merchants and artisans, bricklayers never approached the literacy of weavers and they in turn were consistently more illiterate than grocers.” There is further evidence from different documentsby marks and signatures, i.e. marriage records, which demonstrate that documents found during the 16th and 7th centuries were more advanced than those from the 18th century. These are some important findings that need to be discussed and debated because they provide proof of concept that there was some sort of "educational revolution" during the Tudor and Stuart periods. Whereas stagnation in literacy occurred during the 18th century, it resulted in an even more staggered improvement or decline where changes were more sustainable towards a more ruthless and unstable political climate. Therefore, it is extremely important to discuss the educational structure during the Tudor and Stuart periods to find out why literacy rates were higher during the Tudor period than in the 18th century. Education is a very fluid and ever-changing concept, influenced by a number of other factors such as politics, funding, religion, etc. Therefore, viewing education simply as the sole indicator of higher literacy rates is naïve. Yet there is a clear correlation between the two things. When we talk about the so-called "educational revolution" we do it in a rather happy way. This is because the evidence is not as clear and connective as I would like it to be. However, it is still important for historians to consider this “educational revolution” within the social perimeters of Tudor society to assess whether this “educational revolution” correlated with an increase in educational opportunities. Lawrence Stone suggests that “the poorer, unskilled and less property-holding working classes had no prospects, but the ordinary poor and all those above them were embraced by the educational revolution.” Simon agrees that educational opportunities were socially organized. Simon seems to imply that the middle class was the most active in participating in and spreading educational opportunities. This is rejected by Stone who suggests that this was due to the influx of nobles, while acknowledging the disadvantage of the extremely poor, but the poor were available to some educational opportunities. When researching literacy levels, not just during the Tudor period, it is clear that literacy is a very fluid subject that varies over time. For this thesis to be relevant to the education research topic, we must assume that literacy and education are defiantly linked in whatever way they may be, which conveys changes in literacy over time along with an increase in educational opportunities. Evidence of literacy is often highly contested and sometimes subject to subjective reasoning, which is something that is not possible to use as evidence in a historical thesis. Most of the problems with estimates of literacy, even today, is that it assumes that if you wanted to become literate it was in childhood that it happened. Therefore, using their age to refine the search for literacy rates. The evidence suggested that males of all classes were more than capable of acquiring some sort of literary education. “Boys from all walks of life who were of school age between 1560 and 1590 saw dramatic improvements in their ability to sign. Yeomen went from about 55% illiterate in the 1550s group to 30% in the 1570s. In the same period, trade improved from 55% to 40%, while farmers also made progress, with 90% to 70% unable to sing. This earned the title of “educational revolution” evidently flowing into elementary education. Educational facilities were expanding in the Elizabethan period and opportunitieseducation throughout society may have expanded with them. In general, the skill and quality of the masters were surprisingly high. Two-thirds of the men licensed as elementary school teachers had graduated from college. However, the most intrusive part of this static is that “one-third of school teachers who simply wanted to teach children to read and write were also college graduates. Further evidence for the existence of a wide variety of educational opportunities comes from research on yeomen. Yeomen were more literary and could be expected to have some sort of disposable income. Income they could spend on developing their educational skills and expanding their educational opportunities. For example, a small number of college entrants on the Isle of Ely, compared to those in the highlands of Cambridgeshire, on the one hand, that the highland yeomen could afford to send their children to university more often than the ferns could ”. When considering the geopedological locations of these educational opportunities it is clear that some places were more interested in education. When I have talked about educational opportunities, up to this point I have purposely ignored female participation in education. This is because it is a rather complex and confusing case that deserves an entire paragraph on its own. When looking at linguistic patterns and any changes in style. There is a clear link between social structures and literacy. Sixth-century literacy would allow the production of a written language to be shaped by gendered cultural values. According to Pollock “Education was functional, not aspirational.” Further supported by Clarke as reinforcing existing social distinctions "This led to many women receiving tuition in a domestic sense in the variety of different deomstic subjects such as needlework, cooking, etc. However, this is disputed by some other theroeis and histroinas who they regard as educationists who supported female education to keep their supposedly “weaker minds” occupied. Clarke offered a rather complex but intriguing explanation for the position of women in Tudor society. Clarke suggested that “this resulted in a paradoxical situation where women being granted access to knowledge for their betterment could potentially disrupt the distribution of social gender roles, a situation exacerbated by the rise of humanist thinking that has prioritized individual access to knowledge." Clarke it uses the way women wrote texts, the way they were written and their stylistic mode, the expectations placed on textual production. Examination of over one hundred letters written by Arbela by women of high rank in the social hierarchy has survived. Published by Sara Steen in 1993 it provides details of Arbela's activities and ideas. During the biography "Wreath for Arabella" written by Donis in 1948. Lanier examines her and recalls an unrequited personal friendship with Arbella, she called her "Great learned Ladie...whom I have known for some time but not as long as I wished". ” Felicia Hermans poems Arbella Stuart imagined her thoughts when she died in prison. Further research on this comes from Sarah Gristwood published in 2005 where “Bess of Hardwick gave her granddaughter an education fit for a princess and Arabella proved a capable pupil; fluent in Latin, Greek, French, Italian and Spanish, learned in philosophy and a skilled musician. The fact that Arbella is a brilliant and intellectual woman is explained by the fact that Arbella made such an impression on Elizabeth at court that “Arbella made such an impression that Elizabeth spoke openly about the twelve-year-old Arbella who would one day becomequeen. Stuart's letters range from lively family alter egos to carefully drafted court letters, from warmth and affection to anger and defiance. They reflect an intelligent and eloquent woman who was willing to challenge convention and the crown. This is the case of Catherine Parr, an incredibly intellectual and well-educated person. Historian Mueller has suggested that Parr's texts "determine a sustained act of intertextual appropriation that constitutes a genuine claim to authorship." This is quite complex and is a topic that has struck a chord with many historians like Coles. When a comparative analysis was carried out "there exists an autograph manuscript version of this work, held at Kendal, thought to have been produced as a gift manuscript for a daughter of Sir Brian Tuke". There was a greater degree of agency in the production of a manuscript, and therefore its more reliable acquisition of Par's stylistic choices, this is the subversion of prayer used for analysis. Lamentation was published in 1547, although references to a still-living Henry VIII suggest a composition date of 1546. There were other political impacts other than religion in Parr's texts which are often ignored. These include education in which she herself was extremely well educated and desired greater educational opportunities, for which she includes thirteen autograph letters written to Henry VIII and Sir Thomas Seymour, among others. It was for her intellectual value and her educational culture that she was considered a "noble youth and femininity". Later in her life it was through her intellect and reputation that gave her intellectual mobility around her male colleagues. Throughout this essay I have discussed the various issues related to the literacy rate in a period that has been a long time ago. While you need to recognize the various issues in defining the meaning of literacy and provide sufficient evidence to support your argument. However, historians have generally turned a blind eye to the concept of educational opportunity and its link to literacy rates during the Tudor period. One thing we must agree on is that illiteracy was much more prevalent among the female gender than the male gender and the common narrative is that a male's educational and literacy status depends solely on one's social status and position within their own social sphere. The social structure of illiteracy has changed very little and, in all reality, levels of illiteracy varied quite dramatically from one year to the next. Therefore, a true link between social status is vague and neglects other aspects that influence educational opportunities and literacy rates. I explained to the likes of peasants that they never approached the educational abilities of gentlemen, while peasants were always inferior to peasants. Within the merchant class there were different types of workers, and the merchant class varied in its skills, such as the difference between bricklayers and weavers. Where weavers had a higher literacy rate than bricklayers while gorcers were more illiterate than bricklayers. Further evidence I have provided from seventh century marriage records which demonstrate the impossibility of being very similar to that found in sixteenth and seventh century depositions. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now.Get a custom essayConclusionTo conclude, I have discussed the different complexities involved in the discussion when it comes to educational opportunities and literacy rates. Historians have often seemed ignorant of the subject of education in the Tudor period..