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Italian Education Vs Renaissance Education

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In an intellectual context, to be a Renaissance individual at the time, one broke from the traditional teachings of scholasticism through education and knowledge. During the Medieval times, individuals were taught to believe ideas and concepts that had already been established. However, Renaissance individuals abandoned this method of thought and instead pursued a humanistic approach. The Renaissance individual at this time no longer succumbed to dogma and instead sought a path of self-realization and a discovery for the truth that satisfied their own terms. A greater emphasis was placed on self-acquired knowledge rather than accepting current convictions. These convictions included the notions and ideas that the church fed to its subjects …show more content…

Together these two aspects provided a new insight and approach to ideas and thoughts. In Utopia, Thomas More describes an ideal nation in order to indirectly criticize Europe. During the Medieval times, education was limited to the powerful and wealthy. In Utopia, More demonstrates how education was considered to be a necessity for all individuals not only an exclusive right for the privileged. He mentions that all children received an education because it provided a strong basis.1 More along with Renaissance individuals demonstrated a great thirst for knowledge and aspired for one similar to that depicted in Utopia. In Utopia, individuals “were expected to make good use of their free time, applying themselves to some occupation that interest[ed] them. Most of them use[d] these intervals to engage in intellectual activities”.2 This depicted a society that was constantly educating itself. Additionally, the society organized public lectures delivered each day at specific hours to enlighten its citizens. This promised various intellectual opportunities to expand one’s intelligence. This same zealousness for knowledge was also depicted through their openness in learning new languages. Hythloday, a character in Utopia states, “when we told [the Utopians] about the literature and learning of the Greeks, it was remarkable to see how eagerly they begged that they should be given the opportunity to learn that language throughout instruction”.3 This keenness enabled individuality because it provided an individual with the desire to seek a plethora of useful information. This information could then be used to formulate one’s own ideas and opinions. With a desire and drive to learn, Renaissance individual focused on three aspects of education- Latin and Greek, history, and moral philosophy or ethics. With Latin and Greek, they were able to revisit the classics

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