by Joan Inong

Created on: July 17, 2008

Education during the Elizabethan era was primarily restricted to the home. Formal education as we know it today was reserved especially for males, while young women stayed at home and learned domestic skills.

Early education for Elizabethan era children is not too different from today's form of early childhood education. Children were expected to respect and bless their parents, and generally to learn proper Protestant ethics. At mealtimes, children were to mind their manners and to eat with small bites with extensive chewing, as well as use a napkin and utensils.

The two genders were also separated at this time. Young girls were taught to submit to their male relatives or acquaintances. If the family was not wealthy, girls were usually taught needlework, cooking, housekeeping, and childcare. If the family had some money, girls would have had the opportunity to learn to play an instrument, dance, sing, or learn other forms of art.

Boys, however, were sent to schools for academic education. Primary schools for young boys ranging from ages five to seven were called "petty schools," and took place in the educator's home. Boys would learn how to read and write English, the catechism, and sometimes modes of social behavior. The Elizabethan alphabet consisted of only 24 letters as opposed to the modern alphabet of 26 letters. After having finished a "petty school," young men would attend "grammar schools." Here, they would learn other languages, most especially Latin. Each year in the school consisted of different subjects pertaining to learning a language, such as basic memorization of words, and then sentence structure, and then translations. Older boys ages ten to fourteen generally learned classical literature, Greek, and mathematics.

After age fourteen, boys would attend university. Elizabethan education at this stage consisted primarily of examinations. Students were given strict schedules and continued their religious education. Like modern universities, Elizabethan era universities were divided into different departments. For instance, there was a "University Faculty of Medicine," a "University Faculty of Law," and a "University Faculty of Liberal Arts," among others.

Undoubtedly, academic education at this time was limited primarily for boys. It is not only a hundred or so more years later that girls and women would have the opportunity to excel in academic education as well.

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