Learning and communication Flashcards
What is the difference between active and passive literacy?
Active is reading and writing passive just reading
What is seen as the highest level of EM literacy?
Being able to read Latin, Greek or Hebrew
Literacy levels in 1640 according to Cressy
Men 30%
Women 10%
Londoners 78%
% of women who couldn’t sign their name, Norwich 1580-1700
89
Age at which it was assumed schoolboys could write
9-11
Era with most Cambridge matricualtions and how many?
1610-1640
400 per year on average
% of Brasenose college members who were commoners
40%
% of Brasenose college members who were commoners
40%
What did the arts degree consist of
7 liberal arts: grammar, logical, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music
Number of new grammar schools between 1558 and 1603
136
How many men entering higher education per year in 1630s?
1240 or 2.5% of male cohort
% going to Oxford from lower, lower middle or middle class
51-54%
According to Jordan number of schools for the pop and average distance to a school
One school for every 4,400 people. One within 12 miles
What Bartholomew Hickling did for girls and the poor
left £6 to equip twenty girls with books gowns shoes and stockings. £8 left for 15 poor boys learning Latin or English
% of London women able to sign their name or initial
25%
% of London women able to sign their names in 1700 under twenty and in their 30s and 40
49% under 20
62% in their 30s and 40s
The age children were able to read, write and cope with a working day
7, 9, 7
Fraction of fathers that died by the time their child was 7 and implications
1/8, meant that family economy would collapse and child would have to leave school
The two options for those who were schooled until the age of 14
Could either gain an apprenticeship or go to university. Tended to depend on social standing
School entry at Aldenham in 1690s outlining rates of reading literacy
1/3 of 5 year olds
1/2 of 6 year olds
3-12 year olds was 60%
Quote Spufford: The teaching of elementary schools to boys and girls
“Elementary schools were licensed to teach boys ‘reading, writing and to caste accomptes” “Girls were to be taught ‘to read, knit and spin’”
literacy rates in the least advanced parishes at the end of the period
20%, means everywhere had at least 20% of men able to read
Average sales of copies of print in 1660s
400,000 annually
Literacy rates of different occupations
3% of thatchers were illiterate whilst 94% of grocers illiterate and 56% of tailors.
Quote, Hubbard, the kind of world women lived in, may have limited literacy.
“Women lived in significantly feminine social worlds, working, talking, and spending time with one another”
Quote, Spufford, the amount of schools in later period compared to earlier period.
“Between 1601 and 1640, half the settlements had a teacher at some time or another, and one-eighth of them had a school functioning continuously, as opposed to only one-sixteenth of them from 1561 to 1600 (Kent)
Illiteracy of gentlemen
2% of gentlemen couldn’t sign their dispositions. Gentleman’s wills have been examined and 5% did not leave a mark.
How the poor bridged the gap to the literate world
They would have one literate person in a society who could give them information.
What fraction of women were learning how to read in London
1/3 born in London and 1/4 those who immigrated. Shows that a broader variety of women are learning not just gentlewomen
Quote, Fox, the indicator of education
There is no more powerful demonstration of the basic divisions of wealth, rank and gender that characterised the early modern period than the extent to which people had access to education
What % of 17 year olds were in attendance at Oxbridge in the 1630s?
2%
Number of entrants to Oxford by the 1750s per year
200, much lower than what it had been in the 1610-40 period
What % of higher education was made up of middle and lower classes in the 1580s and in 1760?
55% and 17%
From what year were all teachers required a licence from the church?
1555
What regions had the best schooling?
London and the counties close to it like Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Kent
In 1500 what % of adult males and females could sign compared to 1714?
10% and 1% compared to 45% and 25%
In what year were all legal proceedings moved to English?
1733
How many unique texts were printed between 1500-1750?
300,000
What % of all literature was London publishing in 1750?
86%
What were chapbooks?
A collection of easy readings like ballads jokes and simple tales of fiction
How many grammar schools were founded during Charles the 2nd’s reign?
Over 80
What % of women in London could initial or sign their names
25%
Historiography Hubbard/ Wyn Ford
They both argue that initials indicate a degree of literacy
Quote: Thomas Lacquer, at what age literacy was developed, evidence to back it up
“basic literacy was not the result of just childhood but a more informal process continuing into adulthood”
In London 1700, 49% under twenty could sign their names but 62% in their 30s and 40s could.
