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Education can save your life – the story of the Neck Verse

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Education forum organiser Harley Richardson describes the unusual role that education played in medieval justice…

One testament to the power of education is that many people credit it with having ‘saved their life’. But whether that’s because knowledge and learning opened up a path to a rewarding career or because it helped someone escape difficult personal circumstances, ‘education saved my life’ is usually meant metaphorically. In medieval England, however, it was literal. Having an education – or at least being able to pretend you had one – really could save your life…

Read the full post on Learning Through the Ages.

What makes a ‘public school’ public?

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Education forum organiser Harley Richardson explores the 14th Century roots of one of the most controversial and misunderstood parts of the British education system…

‘Public school’ has to be one of the most confusing education-related phrases in common parlance. In the US it means what most of us would expect it to mean – a community school that is free for members of the public to attend. In the UK, however, it means the opposite: an exclusive, fee-paying school attended by the children of the elite, such as Eton, St Paul’s or Harrow. A school much like a private school, in other words. So what, if anything, is ‘public’ about a public school?

Read the full post on Learning through the ages for the full story.