Preliminary Analysis Of The Living Condition Of Schoolmasters In Early Modern England

England had witnessed a quick development and expansion of its education in the early modern time. However, the living conditions of the organizers and practitioners of this educational revolution were not that good as some scholars have expected. To serve as schoolmaster, they must first meet some basic requirement, then, they had to apply to the church authorities for teaching license and experience periodic visitations as well as peer review. In return, the professional schoolmasters could insist on certain privileges and educational monopoly. Although the schoolmasters in some cases could enjoy exceptionally generous terms of employment besides his house, stipend and sick leave, most of them were not so luck and could enjoy little of the social standing or financial reward of their contemporaries in the law or the church.Besides the forward and concluding remark, the paper is made of five parts.The first part mainly discusses the changes of the teaching environment of the teachers in the early modern England. Including the reasons and performance of prosperity of the school education in this period, as well as the influence on teaching content, teaching method and education thought from the humanism thought in this period.The second part mainly elaborates the teachers’ hierarchical classification and their distribution. This part will divide teachers into elementary teachers, grammar teachers, general teachers and university teachers, respectively illustrate the types of their schools, and the living conditions of teachers in the various schools.The third part mainly discusses the hiring criteria of the teachers. This part respectively analyzed the hiring criteria from the perspectives of the schools and churches. The school part mainly includes schools’ major donors and administrators’ selection requirements for teachers, and the review between peers. Then to introduce how the church intervened in the employment of teachers by making clergy becoming teachers and further inspections of hiring teachers.The forth part mainly discusses the teachers’ treatment in the early modern England. This chapter first discussed the industry status and professional guarantee of teachers, and detailed analysis teachers’ social status and economic income. Then introduces several special types of teachers’ treatment, such as foreign teachers, the puritan teachers and female teachers.The fifth part mainly elaborates the living conditions of schoolmasters’ impact on teaching professionalism. This part mainly expounds from two aspects. On the one hand, from the influence on industry specialization, on the other hand, from the effect on the stability of the teaching group. Pointing out that because of low social status and economic income, though there are some teachers’ willing to dedicated to teaching career lifelong, but more and more people are only treat teaching as a temporary job. These situations had hindered the professional development of teachers. It would also lead to instability of teaching groups, and will enhance the liquidity of teachers. This situation will cause the teaching activities of schools of some areas often be interrupted, it will have a negative impact on the sustainable development of education.