Effects the Renaissance had on theories and practices of education - Essay Example

The Renaissance which started in Italy and which literarily translates to ‘rebirth’ is among the most influential period in history. Humanism whichstarted during this time gives focus on the study on what is now called the arts. Subjects such as philosophy, literature, language and history came to be developed. The word umanista from the Latin etymology humanitas was used as an academic term describing someone who is involved in the study of arts such as literature and rhetoric. Later on, the term humanities emerged to describe the dedication to the works of ancient Greeks and Romans particularly the human values that are inherently attached in them.

Humanism encompasses many different focal points that are inculcated in today’s scholastic perspective. It is what Mann refers to as the embodiment of tradition for the persistence of Western culture, “Grounded in what we would now think of as learned research, it rapidly found expression in teaching” (p.2). The Renaissance was a major shift in the overall social, cultural and philosophical perspective of people. It was the dawn of the sciences and attributed to the flourishing of all modern knowledge because of the unfazed disposition of scholars that defied archaic teachings that were characterized by primitive Catholicism.

No longer were they bound by the instigation of fear brought on by friars’ capitalization on religion and the fear of the unknown as a powerful force that moved men in their action. There was an opening of minds to the new possibilities for the discovery of the truth based on scientific evaluations and logic. From the word itself, humanism allowed for the development of man in a holistic level. The humanists also played an important role in the transformation of education and its concurrent reformation of the Latin teachings.

It emphasized not only on the intellectual development of the human being but also on the moral aspect which does not necessarily take away on his freedom but rather focuses on the achievement thereof. There was much influence on Italian educators such as Guarino Veronese and Vittorino de Feltre in terms of general education. Subsequent educators which patterned after them went beyond being just grammar schools for Latin but also delved in other subjects, the most notable of which is philosophy.

In 1982, through Anthony Grafton and Lisa Jardine, this approach was again revisited in their book ‘From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Europe’ (Black, p. 17). This, as many other scholastic theories and concepts that spur dialogues, has variations as well as detractors. “For the very reason that Latin was assumed to be a moral art, teaching in the schoolroom did not have to focus on lessons for good behavious but could concentrate on technicalities of grammar and philology” (ibid, p. 27). Education, just likemany others, is a consistent development of theories that find its way into practice.

The Renaissance had many influences on education. Before the status of education as a basic fundamental of human life, there was the ancient people who did not or could not avail of education as easily aswe do today. The Renaissance paved the way for this. It was in a manner of saying, sparked the development of education from early infancy on its way to adulthood. This was a process that spanned centuries. From the early years in ancient Greece when Socrates started a new way of teaching by persistently questioning his students ‘why’ which ultimately led to his condemnation to the normalcy of this today.

Modern education owes a lot to the Renaissance that we even see Humanities as a subject incorporated in any school’s most basic curriculum. Works Cited Black, Robert. Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Mann, Nicholas. "The Origins of Humanism." Kraye, Jill. The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 2-17.