Education In Western Civilization Essay

Western civilization experienced many developments to education and intellectualism in-between the time of the fall of Rome and the renaissance. At first, education was based mainly on religion and taught in religious buildings during the middle ages, but as time rolled on colleges and universities arose. Intellectualism was comprised mainly of three factions humanism, secularism, and individualism, and were taught mostly by influential people and their writings. The development of institutions and an emphasis on education and intellectualism led to the opportunity for rich or poor people to receive an education. Education and the three intellectual hallmarks greatly influenced the history of western civilization and the history of today. …show more content…
In the high middle ages and the renaissance, education and learning was focused on both Greek and Roman authors, as well as religious study. Education was somewhat altered from being completely focused on religious purposes due to the five disasters that hit Europe. Death and plaques pushed more emphasis on surgery and medical learning. Another disaster that helped evolve education was the problems in the Christian church. Members of the church began to lose faith because of the papal schism which led to the reformation and individuals reading the bible for themselves. These disasters and others, combined with medieval society, ushered in more pagan learning and teachings. Much of the material that provided for pagan learning came from Greek philosophers like Aristotle which sometimes clashed with the teachings of the Christian faith. However, education did not completely focus on pagan beliefs after these developments and disasters. Thomas Aquinats, for example, wrote Summa Theological where Aquinats attempted to blend reason and faith together to educate. Universities also gave birth to colleges, which offered classes to lower class people. This increased the amount of people that were educated in the middle