Wool Medieval Europes Common Cloth

In the Middle Ages, wool was by far the most common textile used in making clothing. Today it is relatively expensive because synthetic materials with similar qualities are easy to produce, but in medieval times, wool—depending on its quality—was a fabric virtually everyone could afford. Wool could be exceedingly warm and heavy, but through selective breeding of wool-bearing animals as well as sorting and separating coarse from fine fibers, some very soft, lightweight fabrics were to be had. Though not as strong as some vegetable fibers, wool is fairly resilient, making it more likely to retain its shape, resist wrinkling, and drape well. Wool is also exceedingly good at taking dyes, and as a natural hair fiber, it is perfect for felting. The Versatile Sheep Raw wool comes from animals such as camels, goats, and sheep. Of these, sheep were the most common source for wool in medieval Europe. Raising sheep made sound financial sense because the animals were easy to care for and versatile. Sheep could thrive on lands that were too rocky for larger animals to graze and difficult to clear for farming crops. In addition to providing wool, sheep also gave milk that could be used to make cheese. And when the animal was no longer needed for its wool and milk, it could be slaughtered for mutton, and its skin could be used to make parchment. Types of Wool Different breeds of sheep bore different types of wool, and even a single sheep would have more than one grade of softness in its fleece. The outer layer was generally coarser and composed of longer, thicker fibers. It was the sheeps defense against the elements, repelling water and blocking the wind. The inner layers were shorter, softer, curlier, and exceedingly warm because this was the sheeps insulation. The most common color of wool was (and is) white. Sheep also bore brown, gray, and black wool. White was more sought-after, not only because it could be dyed virtually any color but because it was generally finer than colored wools, so over the centuries selective breeding was done to produce more white sheep. Still, colored wool was utilized and could also be overdyed to produce darker material. Types of Wool Cloth All grades of fiber were used in weaving cloth, and thanks to the diversity of sheep, the variations in wool quality, different weaving techniques and the wide range of production standards in different locations, a great variety of wool fabrics were available in the Middle Ages. However, its worth noting here that there were, generally, two main types of wool cloth: worsted and woolen. Longer, thicker fibers of more or less equal lengths were spun into worsted yarn, which would be used to weave worsted cloth that was fairly lightweight and sturdy. The term has its source in the Norfolk village of Worstead, which in the early Middle Ages was a thriving center of cloth production. Worsted cloth did not require much processing, and its weave was clearly visible in the finished product. Shorter, curlier, finer fibers would be spun into woolen yarn. Woolen yarn was softer, hairier and not as strong as worsted, and cloth woven from it would require additional processing. This resulted in a smooth finish in which the weave of the fabric was unnoticeable. Once woolen cloth had been thoroughly processed, it could be very strong, very fine, and much sought-after, the best of it exceeded in luxury only by silk. The Wool Trade In the medieval era, cloth was produced locally in virtually every region, but by the dawn of the High Middle Ages a robust trade in raw materials and finished cloth had been established. England, the Iberian peninsula and Burgundy were the largest producers of wool in medieval Europe, and the product they obtained from their sheep was especially fine. Towns in the low countries, chiefly in Flanders, and towns in Tuscany, including Florence, acquired the best wool and other materials to make particularly fine cloth that was traded throughout Europe. In the later Middle Ages, there was increased cloth manufacturing in both England and Spain. The wet climate in England provided a longer season during which the sheep could graze on the lush grass of the English countryside, and therefore their wool grew longer and fuller than sheep elsewhere. England was very successful in turning out fine cloths from its home-grown wool supply, which gave it a strong advantage in the international economy. The merino sheep, which bore especially soft wool, was indigenous to the Iberian Peninsula and helped Spain build and maintain a reputation for excellent wool cloth. The Uses of Wool Wool was a textile with numerous uses. It could be knitted into heavy blankets, capes, leggings, tunics, dresses, scarves and hats. More often, it could be woven into large pieces of cloth of varying grades from which all these things and more could be sewn. Carpets were woven from coarser wool, furnishings were covered with woolen and worsted fabrics, and draperies were made from woven wool. Even underwear was occasionally made from wool by people in colder climes. Wool could also be felted without being woven or knitted first, but this was done by beating the fibers while soaking them, preferably in warm liquid. Early felting was done by stomping on the fibers in a tub of water. The nomads of the steppes, such as the Mongols, produced felt cloth by placing woolen fibers under their saddles and riding on them all day. The Mongols used felt for garments, blankets, and even to make tents and yurts. In medieval Europe, less-exotically-produced felt was usually used to make hats and could be found in belts, scabbards, shoes and other accessories. The wool manufacturing industry thrived in the Middle Ages.

Essay on Poverty No Simple Solution to this Multi-faceted...

Describe In preparation for this reflection paper, I read the texts by Shipler and Walls, reflected on my life experiences, and then identified the following key themes: individuals who are in poverty are marginalized from mainstream society, poverty is a systemic problem, and the struggle for upward mobility is compacted by lack of education and an inadequate social services system. The families identified in the texts were from varied backgrounds; however, they each experienced the common struggle of poverty. â€Å"The poverty rate in 2006 stood at 12.3%, which represented 36.5 million individuals, or about one out of every eight Americans.† My initial reaction to these texts was one of intrigue at the resiliency of the families as they met†¦show more content†¦My own use of literature and learning about other lifestyles helped me to embrace another way of life in place of the chaotic one I experienced in my youth. My parents were adamant that I pursue higher education, in s pite of their lack of such an accomplishment. Their empowerment and resilience has played a significant role in my pursuit of higher education and middle class socio-economic status. Examine â€Å"The first step is to see the problems, and the first problem is the failure to see the people† (Shipler, 2005, p.11). Shipler and Walls go into great detail to describe the adversity that overwhelms families in poverty. There are limitations to the texts that were read. Shipler writes from the perspective of a journalist and subjectively presented the information about the individuals he followed through a number of interviews. The limitations of his research are based upon information presented by those interviewed and a series of interviews conducted over a limited period of time. Walls wrote from the vantage point of an adult child who overcame childhood poverty experiences. 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Andragogy vs Pedagogy free essay sample

Education is the extension of educational opportunities to those adults beyond the age of general public education who feel a need for further education or training of any sort. Even though it has been around for some time, it is still a growing field in the US that hasn’t caught up to the education of children and younger adults. There is a set of principles for Andragogy, how adults learn and another for pedagogy, how children learn. This paper will look at one main theory of adult education and how the ideas are portrayed. It will also compare the pedagogical and andragogical approaches to highlight the differences between how children learn compared to adults and how these differences affect learning needs, preferences and the type of instruction received by both adults and children. The two different approaches will affect the instructional methods used for adults and children. The pedagogical approach assumes that â€Å"the learner enters into an educational activity with little experience that can be used in the learning process[1]† therefore they become what are called â€Å"dependent personality† who relies on the teacher for everything. In this scenario, the teacher is the dominant person who has all the knowledge, they make every decision regarding the teaching/learning process including all the learning needs, what and how knowledge is learned and the classroom becomes teacher-dominated. In this teacher-dominated classroom, there may be little input from the students and student would not work together to share ideas and information to promote creative and independent thinking. The learning needs of the students become secondary as â€Å"student achievement is at the forefront of teacher-centered curriculum, but teachers are driven to meet accountability standards and often sacrifice the needs of the students to ensure exposure to the standards. [2]† Therefore what you find in this classroom is â€Å"teacher talks, students listen†, â€Å"teacher asks questions, students answer† and the teacher will monitor, correct and evaluate all students’ work. The classroom with adults will look totally different as the andragogical approach assumes that â€Å"as a person matures, he/she accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes a resource for learning. Adults tend to come into adult education with a vast amount of prior experiences compared to that of children. If those prior experiences can be used, they become the richest resource available. Adults tend to be actively involved in all decisions that occur in the learning environment herefore it creates a scenario where the role of the teacher shifts from the provider of information to resource personnel who provides input as needed. The teacher becomes more of a facilitator and the classroom is more student-centered where adults with their wealth of knowledge and experiences engage each other to share information and bounce ideas off each other as they try to solve problems. â€Å"Student-centered approaches derive from constructivist views of education, in which the construction of knowledge is shared and learning is achieved through students engagement with activities. Due to the fact that adults are more self-directed, they prefer to discover the information rather than rely on the teacher to present all the knowledge. Therefore from an†instruction† point of view, the teacher has to provide an engaging environment that will promote learning and the instruction would focus on many different learning styles and are adapted based on adult’s strengths, interests, knowledge and experiences. This flexibility promotes group activity or teamwork as the teacher may just need to ask a question and allow adults to come up with the solution as they are more task oriented or more in problem solving. The teacher will have to make sure that the information or knowledge is relevant to adults as they may choose to learn the material only if it is relevant meaning they will use the new information in some capacity in their daily lives. One of the main theories of adult education comes from Malcolm Knowles who is often credited for putting adult education and adult learning at the forefront because of the researches he did on the topic and many papers and books he wrote about it. His idea of how adults learn was based on five basic principles. These first is that the motivation for adults to learn is more intrinsic as they may have greater self esteem or need to learn to achieve a better quality of life. The second is that adults are more experienced and that experience can be useful in the learning process as it is a form of resource. The third is â€Å"self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being[5]† meaning adults are independent and will not rely on instructor for everything. The fourth is that there is an increased readiness to learn information that may prove useful in their daily lives and fifth, adult become more task or problem solving oriented instead of learning by subject matter. The principles of how adults learn are presented in a way to highlight the differences between how adults and children learn. Everything was compared to the principles of pedagogy or how children learn to illustrate the difference in thinking, motivation and orientation to learning between adults and children. The most interesting part of the article was that Knowles used two opposing areas of psychology, Behavioral and Humanistic to help generate and support his theory. The pedagogical and andragogical approaches highlights major differences between how children learn compared to adults. Comparing both approaches shows that there is a difference in the level of experience, motivation, the readiness to learn and how they learn. It shows that children are more dependent on the instructor for all information while adults a more independent and will want to gather information on their own. Adults are motivated internally and driven by the need to make their better while children are motivated by grades and other external factors. These differences affect the type of instruction they receive as with children, the instructor may be dominant and control everything aspect of instruction while with adults, they acts as facilitators instead of the main provider of information. Malcolm Knowles Theory of andragogy identifies five principles that affect how adults learn. These are in contrast to how children learn and presented so the differences between how adults and children learn can be seen clearly. All the principles of andragogy can be used by individuals who work with adults to adjust the instructional strategies, methods and approaches in order to meet the diverse needs of adults.