Craft School

an elementary general education school for the sons of craftsmen in the medieval cities of Western Europe. The craft schools’ emergence was related to the failure of the predominantly church-operated schools to provide the elementary education that the craft guilds required. The 13th and 14th centuries saw the proliferation of such craft schools; they were organized and financed by the craft guilds, which collected tuition fees from the pupils’ parents. The curriculum consisted primarily of reading, writing, and arithmetic, supplemented by elementary geometry and the rudiments of natural science. Instruction was in the vernacular.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the craft schools merged with the guild schools to form municipal, or town council, schools operated by the civil authorities.