Renaissance_Dbq_Essay

DBQ Essay Renaissance education was pushed for its values and purposes of enlightenment of the mind and education for women. As the Renaissance progressed, education became more about establishing a social hierarchy and challenges, such as people against education, arose. In Doc1 Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini said that the study of Philosophy and of the Letters was the guide to the true meaning of the past, to a right estimate of the present, and to a sound forecast of the future. Piccolomini is trying to persuade people to take advantage of the education provided for them. He is trying to stress the importance of knowledge through the past, present, and future. In Doc2 learning and training in virtue was considered a valuable part of education because they were believed to be pursuits and activities proper to mankind. Societal conditioning began to change people’s views on education, for the better. Erasmus, the northern humanist, believed that students worked their ways up to the study of great writers. Doc4 states that once the scholar reaches the stage of the study of the greater writers, he must devote all of his attention to ancient Greek and Roman literatures. Doc6 makes education a value by using childhood as an example, Francesco explains that he found writing useless and silly as a child, but as an adult it would give the intellect dignity and reputation. The purpose of the education system, Michel de Montaigne explains, was to make students learned. Doc8 explains that books were chosen to have students speaking the best Greek and Latin, just as the books did. Doc12 shows that as the dates grew later the percentage of the Justices of the Peace who attended University grew larger as well. By 1636 Northamptonshire had the highest percentage, proving that education became a value to many. “And when she learned to write, let not her example be trifling songs but sober sentences, prudent and chaste, taken out of Holy Scripture or the sayings of philosophers.” Juan Luis Vives wrote in Doc5, meaning don’t fear a woman with a pen and paper, for she will only write text taken from the Holy Scripture and philosophers. It seems as though Juan Luis is putting women down, but in reality he’s trying to fight for women to be allowed an education of reading and writing. He tries to make it seem like women won’t do much with reading and writing skills attained in school. Anne Higginson, Doc9, shows the true value of an education for girls. She speaks of a woman who teaches young girls reading and writing for free which can be interpreted as the woman finding it necessary for girls to know how to read and write. In Doc3 and Doc10 the authors of the documents explain the turning point of the values and purposes of an education. Doc3 literally tells the reader that it is better to be educated so, “at least he will be capable of judging the writing of others.” The transformation occurs in the purposes of education more than the values, although the values do lessen because of this. Instead of being educated for the sake of being educated, men educated themselves to seem better than others. In Doc10, it explains that University does little good for scholars. They don’t become any smarter, they only think so, which they believe gives them the right to critique other’s writings. As many educational successes as there were, there seemed to be the same amount of challenges. Doc7, Doc11, and Doc13 explain their reasoning behind not being for the enlightenment of the mind. Doc7 was for education, not literature, but the education of God and discipline. Doc11 explained that the Renaissance gave men -that could be used for hard labor- an excuse not to work. They preferred to have strong men, rather than fluffy philosophers. Doc13 seemed to be for the educational system for only some men. John Amos Comenius writes that Grammatical, Rhetorical, and Logical education should be reserved for University students only. Another document by Erasmus would be extremely helpful because taking AP European History, I’ve learned much more about him than the other authors used in the documents.