Questions tagged [education]

Education is a process of organized teaching and learning.

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How did 19th century Germany pull so far ahead of its contemporaries? [closed]

I'm not well-read, but I got the impression that Europeans (e.g. Gilbert and Sullivan, Bizet, Smetena) rejected German art while they pulled ahead in engineering and mathematics. Stephenson may have ...
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When was the term 'finishing school' first used?

I'm researching an article on women's education. The earliest reference I can find to an school describing itself as a 'finishing school' is Miss Porter's School, 1843, in Connecticut. Is there an ...
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What legal instruments in the Russian Empire criminalised teaching peasants to read?

When he was 17 - and he was born in 1867 so this was after the 1861 abolition of serfdom - Boris Sidis was jailed in the Ukraine, then in the Russian Empire, for the crime of teaching peasants to read ...
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What happened to the British universities during WWII?

For one of my courses at university, I chose to work on the topic of British students during the Second World war. I suppose many of them interrupted their studies to go and fight, but what was the ...
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How did one get accepted into university in 19th century England?

So, here's all I (believe to) know on this topic and some follow up questions: Only the more wealthy (upper and middle class) did have the resources to send their offspring (of course mostly only the ...
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Were there any tests or prerequisites for Blacks and Indians to be admitted to the University of Cape Town during Apartheid? [closed]

I have gone through the university's website. Their website does mention anything about this.
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Where and how were the catapults/trebuchets operators trained?

Practice makes perfect: give someone enough time with a sling, bow or crossbow and after a while he will learn to hit the target - you don't need to know much science, as much of the learning revolves ...
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Did they have dorm mothers for finishing schools in the 19th century?

I'm currently writing a novel, and was doing a lot of research on 19th century finishing schools for young ladies. In my book, the girls need to stay on site or next to the finishing school. However, ...
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Where did Asian Americans go to school during the 'separate but equal' era?

I know that Brown vs. Board of Ed. desegregated schools. Reading Through History has a great video that clearly summarizes what this landmark case was about. However, everything I've heard about Brown ...
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Does anyone know the names of schools in 1870/71 London (potentially near Brixton) where wealthy Americans traveling abroad would enroll their sons?

I am looking for schools in the London area operating in the years 1870/71 at a minimum where Americans traveling at length abroad might have placed their teenage sons to further their education. ...
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What did it mean to be a Grecian in late-18th Century British schools?

Near the beginning of CS Forester's novel Mr Midshipman Hornblower, which begins in 1793, the titular Hornblower arrives on board his first ship, where the captain asks about his schooling: "How ...
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How did the European public school system originate?

Are there any good sources for learning about the history of education in Europe? I am particularly interested in learning about the origins of the public schooling system, as it seems they should ...
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How did scholarly education work in Song dynasty China?

In Song dynasty China, the Imperial Examinations were held to determine who would become the new government leaders to replace the older hereditary system of power. According to several sources, any ...
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What were the components of a good classical education in 18th Century British Empire?

Reading the Federalist Papers, I’m really impressed by the command that the American Founders had not only of the language but also models of philosophy, history, and politics. What would a good ...
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How likely it is that a nobleman of the eighteenth century would give written instructions to his maids?

This question is about a detail in the biography of one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, Henry Cavendish. The Wikipedia article about him states that He communicated with his female ...
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How successful was the NDEA?

The National Defence Education Act (NDEA) was passed shortly after the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik I with the goal of remedying what the American government believed to be a gap in ...
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Why are some school systems from September–July versus others that go April–March?

I've heard from colleagues and on-line sources that the Japanese school system starts the school year on 1st of April and I've heard the same used to be true in Germany. In Belgium, where I live, I ...
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How were the "richest and best endowed universities" funded in the 1700s?

Adam Smith (1776): In some of the richest and best endowed universities, the tutors content themselves with teaching a few unconnected shreds and parcels of this corrupted course; and even these they ...
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Why didn't Rutgers, College of William & Mary, St John's College (Annapolis Maryland) get famous like Ivy League?

Higher education in the American colonies started with a small endowment and donation from John Harvard to the Massachusetts Bay college that was later renamed in his honor. The school served young ...
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Religious sectarianism as the primary cause of the Bosnian War [closed]

For the past months, I have been doing empirical research on whether religious sectarianism was the primary source of the Bosnian War (Serbs X Croats X Bosniaks X Albanians); whether this ...
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What have been the major milestones in the creation of state literacy policies?

There have been times as literacy was not obligatory. So, many people were not able to read/write in their mother tongue, but it was just normal. Today, most people are literate, and this is a result ...
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Is the argument for a means test on public education a new one?

In the United States, the last Democratic debate a widely discussed proposal for free tuition for all students who attend public Universities ( State and Land-Grant Universities ) came up. ...
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What do we know about the location of Islamic schools in pre-colonial Africa?

There is much research in history and social science on how Christian missionary schools changed the formation of human capital in Africa, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. However, I find very little ...
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What did participants experience in the Nazi one month training course for teachers?

Hitler set up one month training camps for teachers that emphasized Nazi ideology and the importance of promoting those idea in their classrooms. I am interested in how the training was organised, ...
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What would a Roman education include in the years 77 - 85?

In the year 77 Gnaeus Julius Agricola under Vespasian was made consul and governor of Britannia, among a series of military campaigns into north and west Britain he also pushed for various civil and ...
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What is the history of the university asylum law?

I fear this question may be rather broad and I would like help to narrow it down. Currently a debate is ongoing in Greece regarding the law preventing police from stepping into university campuses. ...
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When did the spherical shape of the Earth become common knowledge?

It's well-known that intellectuals in the West have accepted a spherical Earth since antiquity, but I'm not sure how long it took for this to become common knowledge, worldwide. So a more concrete ...
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Was Deicide officially taught in American Catholic ("parochial") schools and if so, when did it officially end?

In the 1970s, which was after Vatican II by several years, the younger brother of a friend was attending a Catholic school -- he was 9 or 10 maybe. He told me that the Jews had killed Christ and went ...
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How did the educational curriculum (books) flow from grade to grade in the 1800s?

I'd like to understand how educational curriculum (book choice/material) progression worked during the 19th century within the United States and perhaps even abroad. We frequently hear of people only ...
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When did "&" stop being taught alongside the alphabet?

I've recently discovered that "&" was taught alongside the alphabet letters. While not being considered a letter per se, many students must have seen '&' as effectively the 27th letter of the ...
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How did a student grant work in 18th/19th century Western Europe

I am making research for a book, and I need details about grants/scholarships in Western Europe around the beginning of the 19th century, ideally for a teenager living far away from the applied school....
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How did Japan get so many Nobel Prizes?

Japan in the last 80 years has earned nearly 30 Nobel Prizes, which is more than any other Asian country (at least two of which dwarf it in terms of population). In the 21'st century, only the United ...
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What happened to the undergrad students who attended the Feynman Lecture Series in 1961-63?

In the academic years of 1962-2 and 1962-3, Richard Feynman gave his celebrated series of lectures to a cohort of undergraduate physics students at Caltech. It has been claimed, probably tongue in ...
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Why do schools in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea use the Westminster Quarters as school chime?

Today, I read about the Westminister Quarters, the chime used by Big Ben in Westminster, London. In that article, I see this assertion: Most schools in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea play the ...
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Creating a "focused research question" for a history paper, unsure how to create a question that inspires debate [closed]

My topic: Systematic oppression through education as demonstrated in black children (in the 1900s) I'll explain each of my drafts and why they didn't work: Why where black children oppressed through ...
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What were the typical arguments against women's higher education in XIX century Germany?

I have been reading about the life of Emmy Noether. A problem that she was faced with in her youth was that, at that time in Germany, women were not allowed to study at universities. At that time, ...
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At what point did high school become a standard prerequisite for university students in the USA?

Earlier in US history, it was common for universities to admit students via entrance exam. A quote in this answer quoting Colonial Education explains "The boys from upper class families were taught be ...
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Who are the three men standing and what are they holding at this University of Paris Doctors' Meeting?

The image below is used on several sites but none of them give much information on this painting other than "Medieval Education in Europe: Meeting of Doctors in the University of Paris" and the source ...
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Why did the GHQ not promote English during the occupation? [closed]

I wonder why GHQ did not force Japanese people to use the English language during the occupation, or at least add English to one of its official languages, much like Hong Kong under occupation by UK. ...
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Do we know who graduated from the University of Mexico in the 1700s?

The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico was the country's first and foremost university in the colonial period. According to George I. Sánchez, by 1776 it had awarded 29,882 bachelor's and 1,162 ...
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Why did the US enact compulsory education?

Why did the US enact compulsory education? The wikipedia article actually isn't very helpful, at least where the intentions of the people who campaigned for this are concerned. I seem to remember ...
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Were Egyptian Pharaohs literate?

This video says scribes read letters to the king as the king was not literate. Can anyone comment on this
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How did an honor society get named as if it were a Chinese gang?

Honor societies and fraternities are a fixture in U.S. colleges. Most often they use Greek letters for their names, and some have names in English. However, the men's honor society of Santa Cruz High ...
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What happened to University College of San Francisco?

In 1859, the Reverend George Burrowes founded University College in San Francisco. Confusingly, it was also known as City College. Burrowes advertised the school in the Daily Alta California newspaper....
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How successfull were Albert Einstein's PhD mentees or children?

I'm curious if there has been any study in the success of the children, PhD students, or people that Einstein trained? Does history show that direct frequent access to an extraordinary mind provide ...
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What education was required for a woman to become a teacher in pre-WWII Germany?

When a woman wanted to become a teacher in Germany of the first half of 20th century, she had to attend a preparatory school for 2 years (Präparandenanstalt), and then spend 3-6 years at a female ...
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Who were the earliest Californian university students?

In California's Spanish and Mexican eras there was not much formal education. The nearest university was that of Guadalajara, founded in 1792. The Híjar-Padrés colony of 1834 brought teachers who ...
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Did the treaty of Versailles require closure of German cadet schools?

I'm hoping someone can give me a definitive answer about whether German military schools/academies ("kadettenanstalt" - secondary school level) were forced to close by the Treaty of Versailles. It ...
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Education during World War 2

I'm currently working on a research paper for my World War II class and I've decided that I wanted to pursue the topic of education in Nazi occupied Europe during WWII. However, after doing loads of ...
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Where did United States colleges rank internationally during the 19th century?

I have read that the USA was far behind Europe until maybe the 1930s. But just what were the limitations of US colleges prior to that? EDIT: I realize there was unlikely to have been any published ...
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