The Age of Enlightenment dominated advanced thought in Europe from about the s to the s. In philosophy, it called into question traditional ways of thinking. The Enlightenment thinkers wanted the educational system to be modernized and play a more central role in the transmission of those ideas and ideals. The development of educational systems in Europe continued throughout the period of the Enlightenment and into the French Revolution. The improvements in the educational systems produced a larger reading public which resulted in increased demand for printed material from readers across a broader span of social classes with a wider range of interests.
Before the Enlightenment, European educational systems were principally geared for teaching a limited number of professions, e. As the scientific revolution and religious upheaval broke traditional views and ways of thinking of that time, religion and superstition were supplanted by reasoning and scientific facts.
Philosophers such as John Locke proposed the idea that knowledge is obtained through sensation and reflection. Prior to the 17th and 18th centuries, education and literacy were generally restricted to males who belonged to the nobility and the mercantile and professional classes.
Both emphasized the importance of shaping young minds early. By the late Enlightenment, there was a rising demand for a more universal approach to education, particularly after the American and French Revolutions.
Enlightenment children were taught to memorize facts through oral and graphical methods that originated during the Renaissance. It offered a practical theory of the mind that allowed teachers to transform longstanding forms of print and manuscript culture into effective graphic tools of learning for the lower and middle orders of society.
