70
votes
Accepted
What do the numbers on this 1960s anti-integration sign mean?
Short and "to the point" answer: Those numbers are just identifiers for various school district organization plans. The digits refer to the number of years a student spends in each "...
- 676
66
votes
Were Egyptian Pharaohs literate?
First, a few general observations:
The time period covered here is more than 3,000 years and we know very little about many of the Pharaohs. Also, there were different scripts which evolved over time ...
- 108k
58
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Portugal found universities in its colonies like Spain?
SHORT ANSWER
Spanish policy was rooted in the tradition of setting up universities in conquered territories, accompanied by the aim of converting the local people to Catholicism in order to bind them ...
- 108k
56
votes
Accepted
How likely it is that a nobleman of the eighteenth century would give written instructions to his maids?
I think the answer to the headline question is "not very, which is why everyone thought Cavendish was a bit weird" :-)
But focusing on the detailed question - from his entry in the revised ...
- 9,112
47
votes
Accepted
When did "&" stop being taught alongside the alphabet?
Ironically, it seems to coincide with the addition of the very word 'ampersand' to the dictionaries. But the process took a while to complete and a precise date seems to be undeterminable, not in the ...
- 80.8k
43
votes
Accepted
Where did Asian Americans go to school during the 'separate but equal' era?
Short Answer
This really depended on several factors, including state, city, time, Asian origin and even international politics. Local housing regulations also influenced the schools that Asian ...
- 108k
27
votes
Accepted
Who are the three men standing and what are they holding at this University of Paris Doctors' Meeting?
The three man are, also according to the text, the three rectors present at a faculty meeting. The staffs they are carrying are rectorial staffs ("Rektorstab"), symbolising their honour and ...
- 80.8k
24
votes
Accepted
What is the history of the university asylum law?
This goes back to Frederick Barbarossa. He granted the university the so called scholar's privilege the privilegium scholasticum or authentica habita in 1150s. Full universities had to be granted ...
- 80.8k
20
votes
Who taught Russian in Eastern-bloc satellite countries?
TL;DR
Teachers were local.
Instruction was good enough for the majority of the victims ;-) to read a simple text and understand slow direct speech.
Why?
The foreign/second language teachers all ...
- 26.9k
20
votes
Accepted
What kind of education would a 12th/13th century English knight get?
First, let's remember that a knight is not just an armoured soldier on horseback; he is a knight precisely because of being in receipt of a knight's fee under knight-Service, with military (and/or ...
- 72.3k
16
votes
Who taught Russian in Eastern-bloc satellite countries?
Anecdotal reports from friends suggest that in the German Democratic Republic, the teachers were mostly Germans.
- 2,208
16
votes
Accepted
What did it mean to be a Grecian in late-18th Century British schools?
From the 1928 OED:
Grecian:
....
2. One learned in the Greek language; a Greek scholar. [Attestations omitted]
b. A boy in the highest class of Christ's Hospital (the Blue-coat school).
Blue-Coat:
...
- 72.3k
14
votes
Accepted
How did people apply for university in the 18th century?
Universities in Europe changed little during the early modern period and, in many respects, resembled the institutions of the late medieval period.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, ...
- 108k
14
votes
Accepted
What happened to the undergrad students who attended the Feynman Lecture Series in 1961-63?
I'm going to address your question in two parts:
1. The accuracy of the claim that attendance dropped.
2. The effect that the lectures had on the attendees.
Firstly, as you rightly hypothesised, ...
- 403
12
votes
Accepted
How did the education system in Colonial North America work?
(There are quite a number of sources on the internet concerning colonial education, some of which are provided at the end for those who want more than the 'highlights' below.)
The education available ...
- 108k
12
votes
Accepted
What would a Roman education include in the years 77 - 85?
Among the best primary sources for this are Institutio Oratoria by Quintilian (c.35 to c.100 BC) and Dialogus de oratoribus, usually attributed to Tacitus (c.56 to c.100). Both of these are cited ...
- 108k
11
votes
What universities existed in Dutch East Indies, and how available were they to the native population?
SHORT ANSWER
In 1901, there were two higher education institutes but neither was, at the time, truly comparable to Dutch universities. The first genuine university-level education was not available ...
- 108k
11
votes
Accepted
Who taught Russian in Eastern-bloc satellite countries?
The USSR didn't send local teachers to the satellite countries. They probably could have done it: a quick demographic calculation shows, some thousands of native Russian teachers had been enough for ...
- 347
11
votes
Why did the GHQ not promote English during the occupation?
You can't "abolish" a language by decree. People can't just be ordered to forget how to speak, nor can they learn an entirely new language within a short period of time. As long as the language ...
- 97.4k
10
votes
Accepted
What were the required conditions to be accepted by a university in Medieval times?
The minimal requirement to study the liberal arts seems to have been sufficient financial means to support yourself and pay the fees, which usually implied that you were of good (or at least moneyed) ...
- 31.4k
10
votes
Accepted
How successfull were Albert Einstein's PhD mentees or children?
Einstein had no PhD students, although he did famously collaborate with junior colleagues on the EPR paradox. He had three children:
Lieserl
Her fate is unclear. She may well have died young, ...
- 745
9
votes
Why did the US enact compulsory education?
From about the mid-19th century on, there were four distinct trends occurring that all motivated, in unison, the development of compulsory education. These trends occurred throughout all of Western ...
- 72.3k
8
votes
What level of knowledge was required to enter medieval universities?
Entrance varied dramatically by time and place, with students enrolling at Oxford or Paris around the age of 14 to study the liberal arts, and at Bologna around the age of 30 to study law.
...
- 72.3k
8
votes
What happened to the undergrad students who attended the Feynman Lecture Series in 1961-63?
As a member of "Feynman's Class" (You can see me in the Realites photo above: Top row, third from the right), I have often wondered why Caltech hasn't done an oral history project on this ...
8
votes
What have been the major milestones in the creation of state literacy policies?
It sounds like you are referring to compulsory education.
By and large, compulsory education appears to be a trailing indicator of heavy literacy, not a leading one. In other words, once a critical ...
- 118k
8
votes
Accepted
When was the term 'finishing school' first used?
Short answer
As a term used to mean a school for preparing young women to enter fashionable society (or something similar), 'finishing school' seems to have already been in use in the late 1790s. ...
- 108k
7
votes
Who taught Russian in Eastern-bloc satellite countries?
It was local teachers teaching Russian in Poland. Another interesting tidbit, is what happened when the USSR collapsed. I was born in 1980, and was lucky enough to be the first class of students who ...
- 171
7
votes
When did "skipping" grades become common and when did it stop in USA?
Skipping grades and other forms of "meritocracy were almost brought to an end by Progressive Education that started in the late 19th century, and picked up steam in the 1920s. As late as the ...
- 104k
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