To School or Not to School: Tudor Views on Education in Drama and Literature

Historians of education have identified the sixteenth century as a period of growth in endowed schooling which in turn led to increased education levels in the lower and middling orders of English society. This broadening of the enrolment base (for boys) gave rise to a number of problems at grammar school level such as discrimination in student selection criteria, issues with retention rates, and tailoring the curriculum to suit the differing needs of students. An examination of a number of prominent pedagogical treatises in circulation in the sixteenth century together with selected Elizabethan and Jacobean plays can provide insights into the Tudor education debate and its implications for the poor and middling sort.