Thesis: the average 18 year old student in, say, York in AD 800 (the middle of the so-called "Dark Ages") had read more, knew more languages, was better trained in logic, could read more music, knew more mathematics and astronomy than the average student from a university today.
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Thoughts: 1. I am only comparing students at the end of the Carolingian trivium + quadrivium with students at uni today, NOT how widespread education was/is. 2. I concede their 'mathematics' was limited (arithmetic + geometry; probably projecting my own limited maths onto others
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3. Re 'music'. They had limited notation (probably more than average student today, who doesn't have any). But their real musical prowess was theoretical, understanding the maths of harmonic proportions. 4. Some paupers and girls did go to school. This wasn't only elites.
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Replying to @johnpauldickson
How exactly are you averaging the average student The *modal* student today probably cannot read or play music at all (people who don't still outnumber people who do) but in terms of the median student, or an imaginary mean student? You're completely wrong
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Replying to @arthur_affect @johnpauldickson
Pedantic, I know, but if “people who don’t still outnumber people who do” that means both the modal *and* the median student are “people who don’t” know or play music.
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Replying to @mileshuman @johnpauldickson
Yeah, okay, I'm not the biggest math guy either
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Although I would correct that statement to say that I think people who have some exposure to reading music probably outnumber people who don't, and if you divide them into cohorts the "zero knowledge" cohort is probably a plurality but not the majority
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Replying to @arthur_affect @johnpauldickson
No idea, factually, but that fits my intuitions too.
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I mean the basics of "reading music", like just knowing how to match a note on a staff to a key on the keyboard, was literally just the first week of piano lessons
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Replying to @arthur_affect @johnpauldickson
Also tons of people are exposed to hymnals in church …
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