Blog on Trivium and quadrivium

 

The most exciting thing of this article is Recorde’s method (Page 273) that aroused curiosity in my mind to understand and explore the technique of multiplication. It seems the easiest and neat way of multiplication using base 10. Due to interest, I worked with a few questions on my own (examples in the picture above). While working on questions, I found that if you got the two-digit number by multiplying the right side number (top with bottom), then you can get the final answer by subtracting the left digit of two-digit numbers with the difference of the diagonals. I am not sure whether they were using the same method to solve these problems, but it is a fascinating aspect.

I like the thought of comparing education with the first 35 years of human’s life in the quote when the author said, “He would have the first twenty years spent on gymnastics, music, and grammar, the next ten on arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and harmony, and the next five on philosophy.” (Page 264). I can elaborate on this quote by using my life experience. As my experience, I understand that people are energetic and had much more potential to learn and explore different things during the first 20 years. After that, they become a subconscious about their career and start to think about their family and then they became mature enough to handle the family and social stress.

The last quote that shocked me is about getting a master’s degree in universities during that time. The quote, “There were no examinations in the modern sense of the term. The student had to swear that he had read the books prescribed and attended the lectures. To qualify for a degree, he was required to participate in public disputations, either defending a proposition or opposing one defended by another student.” (Page 272) made me think that there was trust among the people; that is why the authorities just gave the master’s degree to the students on the swear that they had fulfilled all the requirements. It also made me wonder that there was no place of content in the education system.