ABSTRACT
In the later decades of the sixteenth century, Western educational thought began to change significantly. This was made evident in the first instance by the appearance of a serious literature of discontent. Quite independently, in many places, a growing number of thinkers began arguing that much was fundamentally wrong with education as it was being conducted and that reforms had to be made. The criticisms that were advanced, moreover, were not ignored; on the contrary, they were often readily accepted into the intellectual life of Europe and exerted increasingly stronger influences on educational practices, curricula and institutions. As a consequence, in the sixteenth century Western education began to acquire many of the attributes that we consider to be distinctively modern, and it is their development that is the subject of the present volume. These attributes are many and varied, and are often in conflict with one another; indeed, Western educational thought and practice throughout the modern period exhibit none of the broad patterns of unity and consistency found in either of the two great previous eras of classical antiquity and medieval Christianity.
