Learning in preindustrial cities routinely spilled into public streets rather than walls

Evidence

The Spatial Integration of Activities. In the preindustrial city, many human activities that we moderns think of as more appropriately housed in private or semiprivate space often occurred in public. Educating the young was one such activity. In ancient Rome, for example, primary school was typically conducted on the street, “under the awning outside some shop and invaded by all the noises of the street from which only a screen or tent cloth separated it” (Carcopino, 1940:105). Or, in twelfth century Paris, where older students from all over Europe came to study with individual scholars, much of the instruction was of a highly public character. In warm weather, teacher and students, seeking relief from the breathless heat of the scholar’s small house, held their lectures and discussions out of doors, clustering, perhaps, around one of the benches that were placed here and there along the city’s streets. In winter, instruction moved inside but the door to the teacher’s house remained open, encouraging all passersby who cared to, to stand about the entranceway and listen (Holmes, 1966:67 -69). — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 175