Education
British Empire: Fiction, Indian Tales of the Great Ones
Born in 1870 into a Parsee family in India, Cornelia Sorabji (1870–1954) became a writer and a lawyer. By the end of the Victorian period, many elite Indian men had traveled to Britain to study.
British Empire: Fiction, Nervous Conditions
In 1959, Tsitsi Dangarembga was born in Africa in the British colony known as Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe. From the age of two, she spent four years living in Britain. On her return to Rhodesia, she attended a missionary school in Mutare.
British Empire: Letter, Mary Moffat
Mary Moffat (1795-1871) was the wife of Robert Moffat, the missionary for the London Missionary Society who established a mission center at Kuruman in southern Africa. Their daughter married David Livingstone.
Early Modern Period: Fiction, Gargantua and Pantagruel
The following passage comes from one of the most famous literary works of early modern Europe: François Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel, first published in four volumes between 1532 and 1552.
Southeast Asian Politics: Nonfiction, Javanese Education
Raden Ajeng Kartini is hailed in Indonesia as that country’s first feminist. She was born in April 21, 1879, in North Central Java, the daughter of a Javanese official serving the Dutch colonial government. During this time, women were secluded from the age of 14 until marriage.
Jean–Jacques Rousseau, Emile (1762)
Rousseau was the most controversial and paradoxical of the writers of the Enlightenment. Born in Switzerland, he published important works on politics, music, and in Emile, education. He also wrote one of the most widely read novels of the century, Julie or the New Heloise.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
During the period of revolutionary government, the Jacobins had introduced the idea of universal, free, secular education provided by the state.
Constance Pipelet, Review of a Book by Théremin, On the Condition of Women in a Republic
In this review of a book by an author favorable to women’s education, Pipelet argues that republics should demonstrate a different attitude toward women than monarchies.
Sumerian School Days
This tablet, from ancient Sumeria (as early as 2000 B.C.E.), details a day in the life of a school boy.