Roger Ascham

Roger Ascham (pronounced / ' æskəm / $ * 1515 in Kirby Wiske, North Riding of Yorkshire, † December 30, 1568 in London ) was an English educator.

Life

Ascham was the child of a long-established family of Yeomanry in North Yorkshire. He received his first training in the home of a local landowner, which awakened a love for learning archery, and in him. In 1530 he studied at St John 's College, Cambridge, where he showed in languages ​​(especially Greek) so good performances that he was asked the younger students to teach as a tutor. 1537 he received his MA and accepted a call as professor of Greek language. Thus his way into the academic career of teaching and research was rejected.

Aschams health was early struck, which led to money problems after a long illness, and he had in 1541 with the Bishop of York take the place of a translator. The trip to the North of England, however, had awakened his old love for archery, which in 1545 led to the conclusion of his text Toxophilus: a text on the practical art of archery and also a proof that the English language was sophisticated enough to such a topic abzuhandeln. He dedicated his work to the King Henry VIII and put it even before this. The was so impressed that he gave Ascham a pension of 10 pounds.

1548 Ascham was initially a teacher of Prince Edward VI. and shortly after, the later Queen Elizabeth I ordered. After a falling out with his royal patron Ascham was staying 1550-1553 as a diplomat at the court of Emperor Charles V in Augsburg. After the death of Edward, he returned to England, where he was appointed secretary of the rather surprising to Catholicism prone Queen Mary Tudor. The successor, Queen Elizabeth I, took care of her old teacher with a prebend in York, which gave him the necessary financial independence to write his major work, The Scholemaster. Also due to the poor health Aschams, at his death in 1568 The work remained unfinished. Only his wife Margaret was able to publish it in 1570.

The Scholemaster seems at first to be a guide for the Latin lessons: a plaine and perfite way of teachying children ... the Latin tong. However, in his Schoolmaster, he designed an education beyond the canon in English, which almost modern anmutet in its wholeness. Ideas of this kind were previously buried in the Latin and Greek texts of the Renaissance and is not to be used for the general public.

Throughout his scientific work to Ascham turned against the ruling scholastic teaching methods and also repeatedly against the general moral decline at court. He joined for the education of girls, not then, of course, and against corporal punishment in schools.

At the age of about 53 years, Roger Ascham died on December 30, 1568 in London.

Works

• The school master. Folcroft, Pa.:. Folcroft Libr Ed, 1976 < Repr. . d ed London 1570 >.
• Toxophilus. Tempe, Ariz.: . Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002 ISBN 0-86698-286-8. .