The boys and some girls
were also taught hawking, hunting and archery. There were no
playgrounds. The grammar student and the undergraduate were tested
for proficiency by written themes and oral disputations, both in
Latin. The middle classes from the squire to the petty tradesman
were brought into contact with the works of the best Greek and
Roman writers. The best schools and many others had the students
read Cicero, the "De Officiis", the epistles and orations, and
some of Ovid, Terence, Sallust, Virgil, some medieval Latin works,
the "Distichs" of Cato, and sometimes Erasmus and Sir Thomas More.
The students also had to repeat prayers, recite the Lord's Prayer
and the Ten Commandments, and to memorize catechisms. Because the
students came from the various social classes such as gentlemen,
parsons, yeomen, mercers, and masons, they learned to be on
friendly and natural terms with other classes. A typical schoolday
lasted from 7:00 am to 5:00 PM. There were so many grammar schools
founded and financed by merchants and guilds such as the Mercers
and Fishmongers that every incorporated town had at least one.
Grammar schools were headed by schoolmasters, who were licensed by
the bishop and paid by the town. Flogging with a birch rod was
used for discipline.
Many grammar schools had preparatory classes called "petties" for
boys and girls who could not read and write to learn to do so.
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