ABSTRACT
This chapter goes back in time to the beginning of the 16th century, to introduce Desiderius Erasmus. It was Erasmus who designed the humanist curriculum implemented by Richard Mulcaster.
Erasmus was by far the most influential mind and the most famous humanist intellect of his day, and the education of children was a core concern for him, as it was for Thomas More, John Colet, Juan Luis Vives, and many of his contemporaries and correspondents. None of them wrote about education with such dedicated attention, clear perspective and common sense.
The humanist curriculum designed by Erasmus was most fully implemented in England in the latter half of the 16th century, when Shakespeare was a student. Its influence gradually faded in the following century, but many of its underlying understandings, particularly about child development, are still considered doctrine today.
