The education process in the Middle Ages was the responsibility of the church. In this medieval period there were schools that functioned adjacent to cathedrals or monastic schools that functioned in monasteries, in this context, the Church took on the task of disseminating education and culture in the Middle Ages and its role was central to our educational legacy contemporary.
The school in the medieval period was directed by a canon, who was given the name of scholarius or scholasticus. The teachers were minor order clerics and taught the so-called seven liberal arts:grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geography, astronomy and music, which later constituted the curriculum of many universities.
For the teaching to take place, an authorization was needed, which was given by the bishops and the directors of ecclesiastical schools who, out of fear of losing influence, made it as difficult as possible for this concession. Reacting against these limitations, teachers and students organized themselves into associations called
universities, which later originated the word universities. the universities were composed by four divisions or colleges. the faculty of Art it was the place where education took place more generally, the faculties of Law, Medicine and Theology worked the knowledge in a more specific way. College directors were called deans and elected by the teachers; O dean from the Faculty of Arts was the dean and officially represented the university.The courses offered were in Latin and with that, a lot of effort and dedication was required from the student. The study of the seven liberal arts was divided into two cycles: the trivium and the quadrivium. The first understood grammar, rhetoric and logic; the second consisted of the study of arithmetic, geography, astronomy and music. According to the degree of affinity, the students were then distributed among the courses of Law, Medicine and Theology. Students lived at a frantic pace and heated discussions with the population were routine. In general, the students were of humble origins and many lived in boarding schools or boarding schools that had strict forms of student discipline. Over time these colleges began to constitute fields of autonomous studies, some of which still exist, and are renowned worldwide, such as those in Oxford, Cambridge and the one of Sorbonne, founded in 1257 by Rogério de Sorbon, in France.
The teaching methodology was based on reading texts and exposing ideas made by teachers. Classes were often lively when debates between teachers and students were held in public, they discussed a specific topic, these classes were called scholastica disputattio. This study process was widely used by São Tomás De Aquino and was called scholastic. THE scholastic had its heyday in the 13th century, the method provided the creation of several Universities throughout Europe, such as those of Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Salerno, Bologna, Naples, Rome, Padua, Prague, Lisbon and so on. The University of Bologna was famous for its Law Faculty and Salerno for its Faculty of Medicine.
By Lilian Aguiar
Graduated in History
Brazil School Team
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/educacao-na-idade-media.htm