Education

Juan Luis Vives

Strongly influenced by Erasmus was Juan Luis Vives, who, though of Spanish origin, spent his life in various parts of Europe—Paris, Louvain, Oxford, London, Bruges. His most significant writings were De institutione foeminae Christianae (1523; “On the Education of a Christian Woman”), De ratione studii puerilis (“On the Right Method of Instruction for Children”), De subventione pauperum (1526; “On Aid for the Poor”), and De tradendis disciplinis (1531; “On the Subjects of Study”).

Not only was his vision of the organic unity of pedagogy new, but he was the first of the humanists to emphasize the importance of popular education. He felt that it was the responsibility of the city to provide instruction for the poor and that the craft and merchant guilds had an important contribution to make to education. Unlike other humanists, moreover, he did not despise the utilitarian aspects of education but, on the contrary, suggested that his pupils should visit shops and workshops and go out into the country to learn something of real life. Just as he felt that education should not be limited to a single social class, so he felt that there should be no exclusion of ... (200 of 123,993 words)