Abstract: Thomas More and his humanist contemporaries were deeply concerned with education. This essay first considers More's philosophy of education — in its aims and pedagogical and curricular means — as manifest in his letters to william Gonell, his children, and Oxford. More believes that education ought to pursue virtue and learning through the reading of good letters and study of the liberal arts, through the completion of a variety of written and spoken exercises, and through the gentle encouragement and example of the teacher. Since More's thoughts were expressed in the inherently dialogic form, the epistle, this initial account of education is then further elucidated by placing it in conversation with views of Richard Hyrde, a tutor of More's children, who also wrote epistles concerned with education.
Benjamin V. Beier (Mon,) studied this question.