School Ordinance
First, the children shall be divided into three or four groups in an orderly fashion.
The first group is made up of the youngest pupils, who are beginning to recognize letters and learning to read. First of all, they shall learn [the contents of] the common handbook, in which the alphabet, the Lord’s Prayer, the creed, and the Ten Commandments are printed together. And initially the children shall not be given other books.
After this, they shall be given Donatus and Cato together, and the schoolmaster shall present one or two verses a day, which the children shall then recite somewhat later, so that in this way they begin to recognize some Latin words and to develop a stock of words with which to speak the Latin language. And it is profitable for them to read Donatus and Cato not just once, but twice. In addition, they should be taught to write, and earnestly required to show their handwriting to the schoolmaster every day.
Item, so that they learn even more Latin vocabulary, they shall be assigned two Latin words to learn every evening, which they are to remember and to recite for the schoolmaster the following morning. And they are to write them down or have them written in a special booklet, e.g., Deus, God; coelum, heaven.
These children shall also learn music and shall sing with the others as outlined below.
The second group consists of those children who can read with confidence and are beginning to learn the rules of grammar.
Every day all of the boys shall practice their music during the first hour after noon. After this, on Mondays and Tuesdays the schoolmaster shall teach this group (which is able to read and which may be called the second grade) Aesop’s fables in the Latin translation of Joachim Camerarius. And the schoolmaster may call on any boy he chooses. He may also use some appealing colloquies of Erasmus, Erasmus’s book De civilitate morum, and Joachim Camerarius’s book Praecepta morum. But Aesop should not be entirely dropped from the curriculum.
On Thursdays and Fridays, this group should be taught some Terence. Because the boys are to memorize Terence word for word, one should not set them too much at one time.
In the evening when it is time for these boys to go home, a useful proverb should be explained to them and written out for them to copy in a special booklet. They are to learn to explain and remember it at home and recite it the following morning. As, for example, Timor Domini initium sapientiae [The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Ps. 111.10], Omnibus in rebus modus est pulcherrima virtus [In everything moderation is the fairest virtue] and the like.
First thing in the morning, these boys shall recite what they have heard in Aesop or Terence, and the teacher shall have them decline some nouns and conjugate some verbs – many or few, depending on the capabilities of the children. And he shall diligently require [them to learn] the rules of genders, cases, past tenses, and supines.
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