Monthly Archives: August 2018

Life and Educational Views of John Locke

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John Locke (1632-1704) was an influential philosopher during the 17th century. Locke also had some significant views on education. This post will look at Locke’s life and his positions on education.

Background

Locke was born in 1632 in England. He went to college at Oxford and graduated in 1655. During, his university studies Locke developed a negative attitude toward the scholastic approach to education with its heavy emphasis on rote memorization. This experience would help to shape his educational views later in life.

After completing his bachelors, Locke attended medical school. Locke was not interested so much in being a doctor as in taking better care of his own health which he had problems with. After completing medical school, Locke work as a tutor to the son of an influential nobleman.

Due to the political actions of Locke’s boss he had to leave England for a time. However,  when a new king ascended the throne in England Locke was able to return. Upon returning Locke writes one of his most famous works “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” as well as other important works.

With his return to England, Locke actually worked for the government that used to be suspicious of him. He continued to serve until his health failed him and  he died in 1704.

Educational Views

Locke primarily had a practical view of education. The learning of a student should be focused on practical. Today it is tempting to spread a child across many subjects and electives but this was not what Locke supported. Education should be simplified and to the point

Locke did not hold that education should only be academic. Reading and writing are important but they were not everything in his view. This was in stark contrast to his scholastic education experience were academics is everything.

Locke believes that character development was the ultimate purpose of education. Understanding right from wrong and showing integrity were much more important than academic prowess.

Due to his medical training, Locke also supported the idea of an education that caters to the needs of the body. Fresh air, exercise, sleep, and a plain diet were critical to successful education.

Temperance was also another key item of success as the workload of the child should be adjusted to individual needs and not all the same. For Locke, a standardized education is insensible and treats children as objects rather than as living creatures. The teacher’s job is to study the child and find what is appropriate for them.

Locke also had much to say about language. He boldly claimed that the learning of Latin was overrated and really an activity for the upper class and not really for everybody. Locke also said that the best way to learn a language was through practice and not through the study of theoretical rules of language use.  In many ways here, Locke is laying the foundation for modern beliefs in TESOL.

Conclusion

John Locke was a highly influential philosopher of the 17th century who had unique views on education at his time. His ideas on wholistic education are still relevant today and his thoughts on language acquisition are perhaps the main view in that discipline today.

Life and Educational Views of John Comenius

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John Comenius (1592-1670) was a Czech educator who has had a tremendous influence on education. This post will take a look at his life and educational philosophy.

Background

Comenius was born in 1592. Early in life lost his parents and was raised by guardians. Due to this chaos, there were some delays in Comenius education as he did not study Latin until he was 16, which was considered late during this time.

Comenius late exposure to Latin allowed him to observe with a critical eye how it was taught compared to if he had studied as an uncritical small child. This would lay the foundation for his views towards language teaching and education in general.

Comenius would later go on to college and would graduate and take the position of minister in his church. These first few years were peaceful as he would work and marry. In addition, Comenius continues to nourish his views on education. However, were would soon break out and Comenius would lose all of his property in the process.

From here, Comenius goes fully into education and teaches and writes. Comenius would work in several countries writing about education as well as teaching. He focused a great deal on reforming how language was taught in particular Latin. In addition, he produced several highly influential books such as”The Gate of Tongues Unlocked” which may be one of the first language teaching books ever and “Didactic Magna” which may be one of the first books on teaching methods. In 1670, Comenius died at the age of 77.

Educational Views

Comenius believed that education should not only improve the main but should be focused on the development of the whole man which means physical, mental, and social development. The teaching should be inductive and based on examples. this means that you teach by using examples and have the students make conclusions.

The focus on inductive teaching and observation made Comenius critical of rote memorizing. Instead, understanding should be the primary goal. Lastly, Comenius was a support that everyone should be educated and not just males. This idea was somewhat ahead of its time.

Comenius is most famous for proposing grade levels. His system had four levels.

  1. Level 1 Domestic school-Home with mother
  2. Level Proper School-Basic reading and writing
  3. Latin School-College Preparation
  4. University

Comenius also had views on specifically teaching language. He supported teaching the mother tongue first until mastery. His point was that comprehension of the language must move in step with the tongue.  Comenius claimed there was no benefit to teaching a language without understanding. Of course, this is in strong contrast to Audiolingualism which is a strong support of nonsense repetition.

He also believed that learning by doing was the most appropriate way to learn a language. After the students do it you can teach them the rules. This allows the students to build on their strengths.

Conclusion

The life work of Comenius is an example of practical Reformation of educations. Many of his ideas and views are still influencing education to this day.

Logical Flow in Python

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Applications often have to make decisions and to do this they need a set of conditions to him them decide what to do. Python, like all programming languages, has tools that allow the application to execute various actions based on conditions. In this post, we will look at the use of if statements.

If Statement Define

An if statement is a statement used in Python that determines when an action should happen. At a minimum, an if statement should have two parts to it. The first part is the condition and the second part is the action that Python performs if the condition is true. Below is what this looks like

if SOMETHING IS TRUE:
    DO THIS

This is not the most beautiful code but this is the minimum for a if statement in Python.

If Statement 

Below is the actual application of the use of an if statement

 number=5
if number ==5:
   print("Correct")
 
Correct

In the code above we created a variable called number and set its value to 5. Then we created the if statement by setting the condition as “if number equals 5” the action for this being true was prin the string “correct”, which Python does at the bottom.

Notice the double equal sign used in the if statement. The double equal sign is used for relational equality while the single equal sign is used for assigning values to variables. Also, notice the colon at the end of the if statement. This must be there in order to complete the code.

There is no limit to the number of tasks an if statement can perform. In to code above the, if statement only printed “Correct” however, we can put many more print functions or other actions as shown below.

number=5
if number ==5:
   print("Correct")
   print("Done")
 
Correct
Done

All that is new above is that we have two print statements that were executed because the if statement was true.

Multiple Comparisons

In the code above python only had to worry about whether number equaled 5. However, we can have Python make multiple comparisons as well below is an example.

number=5
if (number>0) and (number<10):
 print("Correct")
 print("Finished")
 
Correct
Finished

Now for the print functions to execute the number has to be greater than 0 but less than 10. If you change the number to something less than 0 or greater than 10 nothing will happen when you run the code because the conditions were not met. In addition, if you type in a letter like ‘a’ you will get an error message because Python is anticipating a number and not a string.

If Else Statements

The use of an else clause in an if statement allows for an alternative task to be executed if the first conditions in the if statement are not met. This allows the application to do something when the conditions are not met rather than leaving a blank screen. Below we modify our code in the previous example slightly so that something happens because of the else clause in the if statement.

number=15
if (number>0) and (number<10):
 print("Correct")
 print("Finished")
else:
 print("Number is out of range")
 
Number is out of range

In this code above we did the following

  1. we set our number to 15
  2. We created an if statement that searches for a number greater than 0 and less than 10.
  3. If the conditions in step 2 are true we print the two statements
  4. If the conditions in step 2 are not met we print the statement after the else clause
  5. Our number was 15 so Python printed the statement after the else clause

It can get much more complicated and powerful than this but I think this is clear and enough for now.

Conclusion

This post provided an introduction to the if statement in Python. THe if statement will execute a command based on one or more conditions. You must be careful with the syntax. Lastly, you can also include an alternative task with the else clause if the conditions are not met.

Wolfgang Ratich

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Wolfgang Ratich (1571 – 1635)was a practitioner of education during the 17th century. His work during his lifetime was mostly a failure but time was a better judge of his practical insights into education. In addition, Ratich was an early influence on Comenius who was one of the greatest educators of all time.

Ratich studied philosophy and theology at university with the goal of becoming a preacher. However, a speech impediment put an early end to his career in ministry. This led him to try teaching as his career.

Views on Education

Ratich quickly formed strong views on education. He believed that children should study their mother tongue first before learning about others, which is an idea that is still supported to this day.

Teaching should also be inductive in nature which means that the students learn from examples and experience first and use these experiences to form conclusions. This was radical at the time because most believe that learning involved making grand conclusions first and finding support for them which is called deductive thinking.

Ratich also despised rote learning as intellectual harmful to students. He preferred to allow a child to learn according to nature. This idea was further spelled out in the work of Piaget and Kohlberg who stressed development in young children.

Language Teaching MEthod

Ratich method for teaching English was methodical, to say the least. His method included about 6 steps.

  1. Teach the alphabet
  2. Form words and syllables
  3. Teacher reads a book out loud to the class with students following along
  4. Students take turns reading parts of a chapter from the book the teacher read
  5. Teacher teaches grammar
  6. Students identify grammatical examples of the English terms in the book

It’s rather amazing this system worked. However, it was ahead of its time. Unfortunately, the results were mixed but maybe not for the method but rather because of the teacher

Implementation

After several years of trying Ratch was finally allowed to put his ideas into practice at a school. With his thoughts on education and detailed method results were assumed o be coming. However, the school was a failure. This is due primarily to the poor people skills of Ratich

Ratich alienated everyone with his personality and stubbornness. He was rude and considered arrogant. Even Ratich’s religion was a point of contention as Ratich was Lutheran and he was living and working among Calvinist. Eventually, Ratich irritated the prince and was thrown in prison for a while before leaving.

Conclusion

Ratich in many had the right ideas and wrong personality. His ideas were revolutionary and in many ways laid the foundation for ideas in TESOL such as inductive learning, the use of authentic reading etc. Ratich only problem was Ratich which may be one of the lessons a young Comenius learned when he visited Ratich’s school.

Making Functions in Python

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Efficiency is important when writing code. Why would you type something a second time if you do not have to? One way coders save time, reduce error, and make their code easier to read is through the use of functions.

Functions are a way of storing code so that it can be reused without having to retype or code it again. By saving a piece of reusable code as a function you only have to call the function in order to use it again. This improves efficiency and reliability of your code. Functions simply take an input, rearrange the input however it is supposed to, and provide an output. In this post, we will look at how to make a function using Python.

Simple Function

A function requires the minimum information

  • A name
  • Determines if any requirements (arguments) are needed
  • The actual action the function is supposed to do to the input

We will now make a simple function as shown in the code below.

def example():
     print("My first function")

In the code above we have the three pieces of information.

  • The name of the function is “example” and you set the name using the “def” command.
  • There are no requirements or arguments in this function. This is why the parentheses are empty. This will make more sense later.
  • What this function does is use the “print” function to print the string “My first function”

We will now use the function by calling it in the example below.

example()
My first function

As you can see, when we call the function it simply prints the string. This function is not that impressive but it shows you how functions work.

Functions with Arguments

Arguments are found with the parentheses of a function. They are placeholders for information that you must supply in order for the function to work. Below is an example.

def example(info):
    print(info)

Now our “example” function has a required argument called “info” we must always put something in place of this for the function to run. Below is an example of us calling the “example” function with a string in place of the argument  “info”.

example("My second function")
My second function

You can see that the function simply printed what we placed in the paratheses. If we had left the parentheses empty we would have gotten an error message. You can try that yourself.

You can assign a default value to your argument. This is useful if people do not provide their own value. Below we create the same function but with a default value for the argument.

def example(info="You forgot to give a value"):
    print(info)

We will now call it but we will not include the argument

example()
You forgot to give a value

return and print

When creating functions, it is common to have to decide when to use the “return” or “print” function. Below are some guidelines

  • Print is for people. If a person only needs to see the output without any other execution the print is a good choice.
  • Return is appropriate when sending the data back to the caller for additional execution. For example, using one function before using a second function

If you take any of the examples and use “return” instead of “print” they will still work so the difference between “return” and “print” depends on the ultimate purpose of the application.

Conclusion

Functions play a critical role in making useful applications. This is due to their ability to save time for coders. THere are several concepts to keep in mind when developing functions. Understanding these ideas is important for future success.

Melancthon Life & Educatioal Views

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This post will take a brief look at the life and educational views of Philip Melancthon (1497-1560) a highly influential protestant reformer in Germany.

Life of Melacthon

Melanchthon was considered by many to be a highly gifted prodigy. In addition to his mother tongue of German, Melanchthon was a master of Greek and Latin to a level that astonished his teachers.

In 1512, at the age of 15, Melanchthon did not start college, rather he would finish college. This means that he probably started university studies at 11-12 years of age. He was also supposed to receive his master degree but the university may him wait because of his age.

In 1518, Melancthon begins teaching and of course, was a phenomenal teacher. His primary field was theology and Greek but he was formidable in other areas as well. It was at this point in his life that Melancthon would become friends with Martin Luther, the reformer.

Melancthon was also a prodigious writer of books. He wrote on various subjects including Greek, Latin, ethics, logic, rhetoric, physics, and theology. Some of the textbooks he wrote were so good that they were used for almost 100 years. A feat that is impossible to with the speed at which new knowledge now develops.

Views on Education

Melancthon believed in leading by example and that attitude was contagious. Target students to study teacher needed to have energy and enthusiasm for the subject. Melancthon was a voracious student and at times this infected his students as well.

Melancthon also developed what is now known as the “Saxony Plan.”  This plan was a brief philosophy of education with three tenets.

  1. Teachers should not teach children several languages at the same time. This is overwhelming for the child. Instruction in Germany should first be focused on Latin.
  2. Teachers should not teach too many subjects. This also is damaging to the student.
  3. Development of different levels or classes should be used. Melancthon, in particular, believed that there should be three grades or classes for young students.
    • LEvel 1-Teaches reading, writing, arithmetic and basic concepts from the Bible
    • Level 2-Adds Latin  grammar and continues bible instruction
    • Level 3-More Latin along with rhetoric, logic, and classes were now taught in Latin

Looking back, these ideas do not seem revolutionary, however, at the time these were ground-breaking concepts. Melancthon was reacting to common teaching habits of the time. In other words, it was common to teach children several languages at once, to focus on too many subjects, and to not have the students organized into groups based on ability.

Conclusion

Melancthon provides us with a look at a reformer of education during the protestant reformation. His work as a teacher and scholar is second to none. In addition, his ideas on education help to rectify many problems in German education at the time.

Educational Views of Michel Montaigne

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By the 16th century, the Renaissance was in full swing, the Protestant Reformation had already been around for over a generation and people had serious doubts about the intellectual and spiritual grip the Church had on society. Since the Church also controlled education people began to question these methods. As this wave of humanism swept Europe.

It was during this time of doubt and skepticism that Michel Montaigne (1533-1592) arrived on the scene. Montaigne was not so much an educator as he was a person who had a strong opinion of how education should be. He also knew how to write witty insightful essays on the subject of education along with other subjects of his interest. This post will take a brief look at his life and educational philosophy

Montaigne’s Life

Montaigne was born into a well to do family in France in 1533. He was natural brilliant and was able to speak Latin, in addition to his mother tongue of French by the age of six. Yes, Montaigne was brilliant but he also had a German tutor who did not know French and used Latin to communicate with the child.

By 13, Montaigne had finished college. He turned his attention to politics and was a member of parliament by the age of 20. Soon after, he became mayor of his 20. Despite what looked to be a brilliant political future Montaigne left politics after becoming Mayor to live a life of quietness. Since he was already well off he did not need to endure the rigors of financial gain and power to maintain his livelihood.

It was in this semi-retirement that Montaigne began writing his famous humanistic “Essays” on various subjects. In fact, Montaigne was one of the first people to popularize the idea of an essay, which is now standard practice in school today. Our attention will be on his views on education.

Views on Education

Montaigne views on education were almost a reaction against Church views on education. Montaigne believed in a wholistic education of the man and not to divide him into pieces. He also criticized the study of Latin and Greek because he supported the development of the mother tongue first. This debate over mother tongue use is a recurring theme in early language education.

Montaigne also criticized the study of the classics as it did not prepare students for practical life but rather bade them conceited. Another target of criticism was the teaching methods of the day, which were often lecture-style. Montaigne views this pouring knowledge into the mind and not useful for the student.

Montaigne supported a more interactional approach to teaching in which the students and teacher take turns talking and listening. THrough action came understanding in his opinion.

Finally, Montaigne was a critic of corporal punishment. He viewed almost as if one was training an animal rather than a person. Again most of these criticisms were of common practices in education at that time period and the education was mostly controlled by the church.

Conclusion

Montaigne was a theoretician on education but not much of a practitioner. His experience as a student led him to write strong reactionary criticisms against education. In spite of his lack of practical experience Montaigne’s thoughts are highly insightful and somewhat applicable to this day.

Common Data Types in Python

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All programming languages have a way of storing certain types of information in variables. Certain data types or needed for one situation and different data types for another. It is important to know the differences in the data types otherwise serious problems could arise when developing an application. In this post, we will look at some of the more commonly used data types in Python.

Making Variables

It is first important to understand how to make a variable in Python. It is not that complicated. The format is the following

variable name =  data inside the variable

You simply type a name, use the equal sign, and then include the data to be saved in the variable. Below is an example where I save the number 3 inside a variable called “example”

example=3
print(example)
3

The “print” function was used to display the contents of the “example” variable.

Numeric Types

There are two commonly used numeric data types in Python and they are integers and floating point values.

Integers

Integers are simply whole positive or negative numbers. To specifically save a number as an integer you place the number inside the “int” before saving as a variable as in the example below.

example=int(3)

print(example)
3

You can check the data type by using the “type” function on your variable. This is shown below.

type(example)
Out[17]: int

The results are “int” which stands for integer.

Floating-Point Types

Floating-point numbers are numbers with decimals. If your number includes a decimal it will automatically be stored as a floating type. If your number is a whole number and you want to save it as a floating type you need to use the “float” function when storing the data. Below are examples of both

#This is an example of a float number

example=3.23

print(example)
3.23

#This is an example of converting a whole number to a floating point

example=float(3)

print(example)
3.0

Floating points can store exponent numbers using scientific notation. Floating point numbers are used because decimals are part of the real world. The downside is they use a lot of memory compared to integers.

Other Types

We will look at two additional data types and they are boolean and string.

Boolean

A boolean variable only has two possible values which are True or False. This seems useless but it is powerful when it is time to have your application do things based on conditions. You are not really limited to True or False you can also type in mathematical expressions that Python evaluates. Below are some examples.

#Variable set to True

example=True

print(example)
True

#Variable set to True after evaluting an expression

example=1<2

print(example)
True

String

A string is a variable that contains text. The text is always enclosed in quotations and can be numbers, text, or a combination of both.

example="ERT is an awesome blog"

print(example)
ERT is an awesome blog

Conclusion

Programming is essentially about rearranging data for various purposes. Therefore, it only makes sense that there would be different ways to store data. This post provides some common forms in which data can manifest itself while using Python.

Luther and Educational Reform

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Martin Luther (1483-1546) is best known for his religious work as one of the main catalysts for the Protestant Reformation. However, Luther was also a powerful influence on education during his lifetime. This post will take a look at Luther’s early life and his contributions to education

Early Life

Luther was born during the late 15th century. His father was a tough miner with a severe disciplinarian streak. You would think that this would be a disaster but rather the harsh discipline gave Luther a toughness that would come in handy when standing alone for his beliefs.

Upon reaching adulthood Luther studied law as his father diseased for him to become a lawyer. However, Luther decided instead to become a monk much to the consternation of his father.

As a monk, Luther was a diligent student and studied for several additional degrees. Eventually, he was given an opportunity to visit Rome which was the headquarters of his church. However, Luther saw things there that troubled him and in many laid the foundation for his doubt in the direction of his church.

Eventually, Luther had a serious issue with several church doctrines. This motivated him to nail his 95 theses onto the door of a church in 1517. This act was a challenge to defend the statements in the theses and was actually a common behavior among the scholarly community at the time.

For the next several years it was a back forth intellectual battle with the church. A common pattern was the church would use some sort of psychological torture such as the eternal damnation of his soul and Luther would ask for biblical evidence which was normally not given. Finally, in 1521 at the Diet of Worms, Luther was forced to flee for his life and the Protestant Reformation had in many was begun.

Views on Education

Luther’s views on education would not be considered radical or innovative today but they were during his lifetime. For our purposes, we will look at three tenets of Luther’s position on education

  • People should be educated so they can read the scriptures
  • Men and women should receive an education
  • Education  should benefit the church and state

People Should be Educated so they Can Read the Scriptures

The thought that everyone should be educated was rather radical. By education, we mean developing literacy skills and not some form of vocational training. Education was primarily for those who needed it which was normally the clergy, merchants, and some of the nobility.

If everyone was able to read it would significantly weaken the churches position to control spiritual ideas and the state’s ability to maintain secular control, which is one reason why widespread literacy was uncommon. Luther’s call for universal education would not truly be repeated until Horace Mann and the common school. movement.

The idea of universal literacy also held with it a sense of personal responsibility. No one could rely on another to understand scripture. Everyone needs to know how to read and interpret scripture for themselves.

Men and Women Should be Educated

The second point is related to the first. Luther said that everyone should be educated he truly meant everyone. This means men and women should learn literacy. The women could not hide behind the man for her spiritual development but needed to read for herself.

Again the idea of women education was controversial at the time. The Greeks believed that educating women was embarrassing although this view was not shared by all in any manner.

WOmen were not only educated for spiritual reasons but also so they could manage the household as well. Therefore, there was a spiritual and a practical purpose to the education of women for Luther

Education Benefits the Church and the State

Although it was mentioned that education had been neglected to maintain the power of the church and state. For Luther, educated citizens would be of a greater benefit to the church and state.

The rationale is that the church would receive ministers, teachers, pastors, etc. and the state would receive future civil servants. Therefore, education would not tear down society but would rather build it up.

Conclusion

Luther was primarily a reformer but also was a powerful force in education. His plea for the development of education in Germany led to the construction of schools all over the Protestant controlled parts of Germany. His work was of such importance that he has been viewed as one of the leading educational reformers of the 16th century.

Direct and Indirect Test Items VIDEO

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Developing direct and indirect test items for language assessments.

Logarithmic Models

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A logarithm is the inverse of exponentiation. Depending on the situation one form is better than the other. This post will explore logarithms in greater detail.

Converting Between Exponential and Logarithmic Form

There are times when it is necessary to convert an expression from exponential to logarithmic and vice versa. Below is an example of who the expression is rearranged form logarithm to exponential.

1

The simplest way to explain I think is as follows

  • for the logarithm, the exponent (y) and the base (a) are on opposite sides of the equal sign
  • For the exponent form, the exponent (y) and base (a) are on the same side of the equal sign.

Here is an example using actual numbers1.png

As you can see the exponent 3 and the base 2 are on opposite sides of the equal sign for the logarithmic form but er together for the exponential form.

When the base is e (Euler’s Number) it is known as a natural logarithmic function. e is the base rate growth of a continual process. The application of this is limitless. When the base is ten it is called a common logarithmic function.

Logarithmic Model Example

Below is an example of the application of logarithmic models

Exposure to noise above 120 dB can cause immediate pain and damage long-term exposure can lead to hearing loss. What aris the decimal level of a tv with an intensity of 10^1 watts per square inch. 

First, we need the equation for calculating the decibel level.

1

Now we plug in the information into the word problem for I and solve

1

Our tv is dangerously loud and should include a warning message.  We dropped the negative sign because you cannot have negative decibel level.

Conclusion

Logarithms are another way to express exponential information and vice versa. It is the situation that determines which to use and the process of concert an expression from one to another is rather simple. In terms of solving actual problems, it is a matter of plugging numbers into an equation and allowing the calculator to work that allows you to find the answer.

Education During the Reformation

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By the 16th century, Europe was facing some major challenges to the established order of doing things. Some of the causes of the upheaval are less obvious than others.

For example, the invention of gunpowder made knights useless. This was significant because now any common soldier could be more efficient and useful in battle than a knight that took over ten years to train. This weakened the prestige of the nobility at least temporarily while adjustments were made within the second estate and led to a growth in the prestige of the third estate who were adept at using guns.

The church was also facing majors issues. After holding power for almost 1000 years people began to chaff at the religious power of Europe. There was a revival in learning that what aggressively attacked by monks, who attacked the study of biblical languages accusing this as the source of all heresies.

The scholars of the day mock religion as a superstition. Furthermore, the church was accused of corruption and for abusing power. The scholars or humanists called for a return to the Greek and Romans classics, which was the prevailing worldview before the ascension of Catholicism.

Out of the chaos sprang the protestant reformation which rejects the teachings of the medieval church. The Protestants did not only have a different view on religion but also on how to educate as we shall see.

Protestant Views of Education

A major tenet of Protestantism that influenced their view on education was the idea of personal responsibility. What this meant was that people needed to study for themselves and not just listen to the teacher. In a spiritual sense that meant reading the Bible for one’s self. In an educational sense, it meant confirming authority with personal observation and study.

Out of this first principal springs two other principles which are education that matches an individual’s interest and the study of nature. Protestants believed that education should support the natural interest and ablities of a person rather than the interest of the church.

This was and still is a radical idea. Most education today is about the student adjusting themselves to various standards and benchmarks developed by the government. Protestants challenged this view and said education should match the talents of the child. If a child shows interest in woodworking teach this to him. If he shows interest in agriculture teach that to him.

To be fair, attempts have been made in education to “meet the needs” of the child and to differentiate instruction. However, these goals are made in order to take a previously determined curriculum and make it palpable to the student rather than designing something specifically for the individual student. The point is that a child is more than a cog in a machine to be trained as a screwdriver or hammer but rather an individual whose value is priceless.

Protestants also support the study of nature. Be actually observing nature it reduced a great deal of the superstition of the time. At one point, the religious power of Europe forbade the study of human anatomy through the performing autopsies. In addition, Galileo was in serious trouble for denying the geocentric model of the solar system. Such restrictions stalled science for years and were removed through Protestantism.

Conclusion

The destabilization that marks the reformation marks a major break in history. With the decline of the church came the rise of the common man to a position of independent thought and action. These ideas of personal responsibility came from the growing influence of Protestants in the world.

Secular Education During the Middle Ages

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The Middle Ages (500-1500 CE) is often viewed as a low point in the world of education. This was a time a strong superstition among people and a lack of scientific progress.

The European world was divided into three classes or estates which were the Priest, Nobility, and lastly, everyone else. These were the three estates. The Priestly estate held significant power over the other two estates. The priests would use the psychological terror of removal from having access to the sacraments of the church to maintain power.

When an individual was denied the sacraments it was called excommunication, when a region loss access to the sacraments it was called an interdict, final if an entire province or kingdom was denied the sacraments war was then declared and this was called a crusade.

There were two common forms of education below the university and these were the Knightly schools and the Burgher schools.

Knightly Schools

Knightly schools trained boys to become knights. The training was divided into 3 segments of seven years each. The first segment was from 0-7 years of age under the care of the mother. From ages 7-14, the boy would live with another knight perhaps as a page. The third stage from 14-21 had the boy serving as a squire. At the age of 21, a young man was declared a knight.

The subjects taught in the KNightly practicum focused on the physical, artistic, and strategic. Music, chess, manners, poetry, and military training were all part of the curriculum. There was almost no intellectual training but an obsession with practical learning.

Burgher Schools

Burgher Schools were for tradesmen and artisans and provided a basic education. The subject taught included reading, writing, and arithmetic as well as geography, history, natural science, and Latin.

THere was a constant power struggle between commoners and the priest for control of these schools. Locals wanted to control these schools themselves. However, technically only the church had permission to teach. This resulted in alternating back and forth in terms of control.

Teachers in these schools were paid almost nothing and traveled from school to school as vagrants. Teaching was not seen as a noble profession at this time thus having a powerful effect on the quantity and quality of education.

Conclusion

Education in the Middle Ages was designed to meet the needs of the three estates. People would often attend school corresponding to their rank in society. This system had an air of stability until rapid social changes brought about the decline of this system.

Types of Reading for the Classroom VIDEO

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Reading types for instructional purposes

Expontial Models

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There are times when we want to understand growth that is not constant. An example of this would be the growth of a virus. As time goes by the virus growth rate increases more and more. Another example would be in the world of finance when we are dealing with interest.

In situations like the ones mentioned above, it is critical to understand the use and application of exponential models. This post will go through examples of the use of exponential models.

Finance Example

One common exponential model in finance is for compounded interest. The equation is as follows…

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Below is a simple word problem that calls for this equation

You invest $10,000 in a mutual fund to prepare for retirement. The interest rate is 5% compounded monthly, how much will be in the account when you plan to retire in 25 years. 

Below is what we now

  • balance = ?
  • principal = $10,000
  • rate = 0.05
  • years=  25
  • times in year = 12 * 25 = 300

Now, we simply plug this information into the equatiom to get the answer.

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The answer is shown above. The initial investment would grow to almost $35,000 dollars over 25 years.

Continuous Growth

In some fields, such as the life sciences, you want to now the growth of a virus or bacteria. Unlike in finance where the balance grows several times a year,  a bacteria is growing continuously. This leads to a slightly different exponential model as shown below.

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e is an irrational number that serves as the base. With this information, we can address the problem below

A student starts their experiment with 10 bacteria. He knows the bacteria grow 100% every hour. He will come back and check in 12 hours. How many bacteria will he find?

Here is what we know

  • final size =?
  • initial size = 10
  • rate = 1/hour
  • time = 12

We plug this into the equation to get the answer

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As you can see, the growth of the bacteria is almost incomprehensible in such a short time. This is the power of exponential growth.

Conclusion

Exponential models provide another way to find answers to questions people have. Whether the growth is over a certain number of times or continuously the model can be adjusted to deal with either of this situations.

Monastic Schools

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During the early Middle Ages (500-1000 CE) monastic schools began to take shape and heavily influence education. Their influence was felt for over a millennia providing education directly or indirectly to a countless number of people.

Background

The monastic schools grew out of the philosophy of Asceticism. Asceticism is the belief in a life of severe self-denial from the viewpoint that the body was evil. Practitioners of asceticism would forego marriage, financial gain, and most earthly pursuits, in order to focus on spiritual development usually in isolation. This a strong reaction to the non-Christian world’s focus on eating a drinking

There were two common ways to follow Asceticism. Hermits would often live in nearly complete isolation to pursue spiritual development. Monks, on the other hand, practice asceticism as well but would stay near communities of people in order to provide spiritual care for others. In addition, monks would live together in monasteries to support and encourage each other. Of course, at least in the past, monks were only men. Women could become nuns if they desired to live in similar conditions among women.

The largest order of monks was the Bendectin Order. The monasteries served as an asylum for the oppressed, as a missionary station, and most importantly as a preserver of knowledge.

Curriculum

The curriculum of the monastic schools consisted of the 7 liberal arts. These seven subjects can be broken into two categories, which are the trivium and the quadrivium.

The Trivium consisted of three subjects which were Latin, logic, and rhetoric. Latin was the lingua Franca of the Chuch at the time so its grammar was taught extensively. Logic was derived from the ideas of Aristotle and included deductive and inductive reasoning. Rhetoric is another term for public speaking and this was studied for the purpose of developing communication skills.

The quadrivium consisted of four subjects which were arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Many of the subjects are not studied as they are today. Arithematic study the mysterious or gnostic properties of numbers. Geometry was studied superficial and of little use. Astronomy was treated almost the same as astrology.

However, music was studied for the purpose of worship. The chants that the monks sang came to be called Gregorian chants named after Pope Gregory who had the chants codified. This is some of the earliest written version of western music. The notational system was different from modern notation using four lines instead of five and use squares instead of ovals to indicate notes.

The significance of Gregorian chants cannot be overestimated as they laid the foundation for modern music. Chants in the halls of monasteries provided the beginnings of most music found today.

Conclusion

Radical views in terms of the body led to the idea of asceticism. From this focus on self-denial comes the idea of living among like-minded people in monasteries. While in monasteries the monks would pursue education for personal development. This led to the liberal arts curriculum that is still used in part to this day.

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