The next step of medieval school was Grammar School. Its purpose was to teach students to understand the Latin words they had learned to “read” in primary school. Grammar school was much more like a real school; when they were located at cathedrals, they were boarding schools and the students served as choir boys. When they were in towns, they were day schools with simple classrooms: benches for children and a tall desk for the master. Students brought all of their own materials: pens and all the accessories pens required (inkhorns, penknives, sheaths, rags), parchment or paper (later Middle Ages) notebooks, and books. They contributed for firewood, hay to cover the floor, and candles.
By the late medieval years, there was more demand for grammar school education, even for boys who intended to be artisans. Cathedral towns and market towns developed boarding programs for rural students. The rooms were primitive; lesser dormitories might use the local riverbank as their toilet. (Slipping on a riverbank and drowning was a common cause of medieval death, though we don’t know how many of them were schoolboys relieving themselves.) Since urine was a component of many chemical-industrial processes, some schools had tanks to collect it, and one of the lesser schoolmasters was in charge of having it drained periodically, but that was really one of his job benefits, since he could sell it to acid-using industries. (More about dormitory systems in later entries.)
Students in grammar school memorized and copied Latin words, sentences, poems and speeches. But we have evidence that some schoolmasters made the work entertaining when they could. Among the documents that survived into our time, we have student copybooks from the 14th and 15th centuries. Some of the words and phrases they were asked to translate were clearly chosen to amuse adolescent boys. Teachers used riddles, passages about daily life, and even lists of insults and faintly scandalous subjects to keep their students interested. By the end of grammar school years, a good student could read Latin with understanding, and could translate from his native language into Latin; the best students could compose Latin verses and speeches.
Basic arithmetic meant memorizing addition and multiplication tables through 20, and solving word problems of cost, distance and time. Many English grammar schools before 1350 taught basic French, since it was always in use at Court. Italian grammar schools taught the use of the abacus and were the first to teach the new Arabic (Indian) numerals. There was a very strong tradition of commercial accounting in Italy; it was an excellent field for boys to train for. Jewish schools taught Hebrew first, and Latin only as a second academic study.
Boys were whipped for being late, not paying attention, and not memorizing diligently enough. Their school days tended to last about as long as the sun was shining, to maximize learning and minimize the cost of candles.