Writing Homework Help

Here are some suggestions for questions you might ask yourself (you

needn’t answer all of these in your paper, but you might want to

consider at least one or two):

* (p. 2) What does what we’re told

about Heloise, plus the fact that she was expected to be tutored at

home, suggest about medieval education? Does it seem as if both sexes

had equal access to education?

* (p. 3) What does the fact that

Heloise’s uncle encouraged Abelard to punish her if she didn’t study

hard enough suggest about medieval education?

* (p. 3) What can

we learn from the third paragraph on p. 3, where Abelard discusses how

his love for Heloise affects his thinking and teaching? (We can indeed

learn important things from this paragraph about what life in the early

university was normally like, when Abelard wasn’t distracted by a love affair!)

*

(pp. 3-5) Why do you think Abelard agreed to marry Heloise only on the

condition that their marriage be kept secret? How would being married

have interfered with his continuing to be a scholar and play an

important role in the early university, and what does this tell us about

expectations for scholars at the time? (Hint: think of the institution

that early universities emerged out of, the cathedral school, which was

designed to teach future priests and monks, that is, members of the

First Estate, and remember that members of the First Estate were not, in

Western Christianity at this time, allowed to marry.)

* (p. 6)

What can we learn from the final paragraph about the motivations people

were thought to have for wanting to be involved in teaching at the early

university, and the kinds of students they would teach there?