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Roger Ascham is one of the most overlooked, but significant figures of Tudor/Elizabethan England. A preeminent humanist scholar whose influence extended from the lecture halls of Cambridge to the private chambers of the monarchy. Probably best known as the tutor to Elizabeth I, his legacy in pedagogical circles has been posthumously cemented by his treatise, "The Scholemaster." Published in 1570 by his wife Margaret, two years after his death, it is widely considered a prominent work in the history of education. His career demonstrates a unique blend of deep classical learning, a progressive pedagogical philosophy, and the political awareness to navigate the precarious religious tides of the mid-Tudor period. He not only shaped Elizabeth's intellect but also introduced a new, gentler vision for English education rooted in classical, masculine humanism.

Born in Kirby Wiske, Yorkshire, Ascham's intellect was recognized early on. He was brought into the household of Sir Humphrey Wingfield, a lawyer and speaker of the house of Commons, who provided for his education. Wingfield's household was modeled on that of Sir Thomas More, steeped in the "New Learning" of humanism.

In 1530, Ascham entered St. John's College, Cambridge, which was then the epicenter of the English humanist movement and the study of Greek. He became a dedicated pupil of Sir John Cheke, the university's first Regius Professor of Greek, and quickly distinguished himself as a brilliant classicist. He was elected a fellow of St. John's (the school's governing body)and was appointed the university's first public reader in Greek. His lectures were allegedly so popular that they drew students from other colleges. It wasn't long before his reputation spread beyond the university with the publication of his first major work, "Toxophilus," in 1545. This treatise, written in English rather than Latin, was, on its surface, a defense of archery. However, its true purpose was twofold: to argue for the importance of physical recreation alongside intellectual study(a prominent humanist ideal) and to prove that the English vernacular was a worthy of serious, academic prose. He dedicated the book to Henry VIII, who was impressed (and, no doubt, sufficiently flattered) enough to grant him a pension. This book, combined with his growing and formidable reputation as England's foremost Greek scholar, finally brought him to the attention of the royal court. His future students would represent the future of the English governing class.

Following the death, in 1548, of her previous tutor, William Grindal (one of Ascham's Cambridge students), the fifteen-year-old Princess/Lady Elizabeth personally requested Ascham as his replacement. For the next two years at Hatfield, he guided her through a rigorous classical curriculum. Their mornings were devoted to Greek, reading the New Testament and the great classical orators like Demosthenes and Isocrates, and tragedians like Sophocles. Afternoons were spent on Latin, mostly focusing on the works of Cicero and Livy. In a letter to his friend Johannes Sturm, a German humanist, Ascham famously praised her, stating that she read more Greek in a day than many clergymen did Latin in a week. He commended her "perfit readines" in Latin, Greek, French, and Italian and noted that her mind was free from "female levity." Just two years later, he abruptly left Elizabeth's service after an intense dispute within her household. Apparently, the dispute arose with Thomas Parry, Elizabeth's cofferer or financial steward. The exact details of of the argument aren't fully known, but in a letter from Ascham to his friend and mentor, Sir John Cheke, in early 1550, he makes it clear he is leaving a hostile and untenable situation. He describes his reason for leaving as a reaction to "a storm of recent violence and injury." This specific phrasing tells us the conflict wasn't a polite disagreement but a severe personal dispute. Historians have concluded that the dispute was likely about status rather than educational philosophy, though Ascham doesn't specify. This sort of friction was common in noble households, where a scholar's high intellectual standing sometimes clashed with their relatively low-ranking place in the rigid social and domestic hierarchy. Ascham likely felt he was being treated like a servant by Parry, who controlled the household's affairs and finances. Despite this, he continued to praise Elizabeth's academic successes.

In spite of his strong Protestant leanings, Mary I appointed him Latin Secretary when she took the throne as the first Queen Regnant of England. This was a clear testament to his superior classical skill, proving that he had no peers. When Elizabeth ascended the throne, she immediately reappointed him to the post. For the rest of his life, he served as her official correspondent, drafting many of her official diplomatic letters in Latin to other European rulers and continuing to read the classics with her privately.

Other than Elizabeth, he, along with John Cheke, also educated the Dukes of Suffolk, Henry and Charles Brandon before their deaths from the sweating sickness in 1551. Probably his most famous anecdote, though, is with Lady Jane Grey. Ascham recounts visiting her family home at Bradgate Park, sometime in 1550. According to Ascham, he arrived to find her parents and the rest of the household were out hunting. He found Jane inside, reading Plato's "Phaedo" in the original Greek. When he asked why she hadn't joined her family for the hunt, she replied that she enjoyed Plato more than hunting. She then allegedly told him, "For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad, I must do it even so perfectly, as God made the world or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened that I think myself in hell. Her only joy, she explained, was with her" gentle schoolmaster," John Aylmer, who taught her with kindness. This story evidently had a profound effect on Ascham and he would use it to frame the central argument of his life's work.

Two years after his death in 1568, his great educational treatise," The Scholemaster," was published by his widow Margaret. The book was the direct result of a dinner conversation in 1563 with Sir William Cecil (later Lord Burghley), where guests discussed the news that several students had run away from Eton College to escape beatings. The book directly assaults the brutal, rote-learning methods of the time. Its central philosophy is summarized in Ascham's famous proverb, "love is fitter than fear, gentleness better than beating, to bring up a child rightly in learning." Ascham argued that corporal punishment was counterproductive. It caused students to hate their books and their magisters, associating learning with pain. He believed praise and encouragement were far more effective "whetstones" for a child's wit. He goes on to make a crucial distinction between two types of students, the "quick wit" and the "hard wit." He claimed that the "quick wits" were too often praised by masters, those who learned fast and were sharp-tounged, but were equally quick to forget. Like soft wax, they were easily impressed but just as easily erased. Ascham favored the" hard wit," the slower, more diligent student whose knowledge, once acquired, was like an" inscription in stone" and would last a lifetime.

In the classroom, Ascham developed the "Double Translation" method. This allowed for the teaching of Latin without the "common order for making of latines" or tedious grammar drills. He would first translate a passage from a Latin author like Cicero, into English. Giving the student about an hour, they would translate the English passage back into Latin in writing. Then the master and student would compare the student's Latin with Cicero's original, line by line. He argued this method taught style, vocabulary, and grammar simultaneously and organically, forcing the student to "think" in the language. The ultimate goal was to go beyond scholarship and create a" whole person" of virtue, piety, and wisdom, fit to serve God and the commonwealth.

I would argue that Ascham's career bridged the gap between the academic world of Cambridge and the political world of the Tudor court. He cultivated the minds of two of the most powerful women in English history in Elizabeth I and Jane Grey and what a shame that Jane's sharp intellect is overshadowed by her tragic fate. His masterpiece, "The Scholemaster" codified a humanist pedagogy of kindness and psychological insight that was centuries ahead of its time. I think he proved that a "gentle schoolmaster" could be more effective in shaping a nation than a harsh one.

More information and articles about Roger Ascham: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roger-Ascham

https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0167.xml?hl=en-US#:~:text=obo%2F9780195399301%2D0167-,Introduction,his%20work%20on%20educational%20theory.

https://reginajeffers.blog/2017/02/06/roger-ascham-serving-four-monarchs/?hl=en-US#:~:text=Roger%20Ascham%20was%20a%20scholar,Greek%20among%20other%20challenging%20subjects.

https://classicalschool.blogspot.com/2007/05/classical-education-of-queen-elizabeth.html?hl=en-US#:~:text=%22The%20mornings%20were%20usually%20devoted,the%20lessons%20of%20the%20day.

https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/lady-jane-grey-the-abused-child/?hl=en-US#:~:text=It%20is%20Ascham's%20much%20later,and%20her%20family%20ever%20since.

https://pressbooks.pub/earlybritishlit/chapter/from-the-schoolmaster-by-roger-ascham/?hl=en-US#:~:text=Ascham%20argues%20that%20schoolmasters%20do,effort%2C%20retain%20things%20the%20longest.