An obvious feature of early medieval education in western Europe is that "monks gained a monopoly position in knowledge education, so education itself also permeated with theological nature", that is, Christian schools were almost the only educational institutions in this period, and priests were the main educators. Christian schools in this period can be roughly divided into monastery schools, bishop schools and parish schools. Monastery schools are attached to monasteries and can be divided into "internal learning" and "external learning". There is an internal school in the monastery, and only those who are ready to be priests are admitted; Foreign studies are set up outside the temple and take others as the object of education. Students' school age is generally 10 years, and their study years are 8~ 10 years. Early monastic schools mainly emphasized the study of religious content, supplemented by simple reading, writing and calculation. Later, the course content was expanded, and the "Seven Arts" of ancient Greece and Rome was taken as the main study subject. The so-called "seven arts" are the seven subjects to be learned. Its origin can be traced back to ancient Greece. The school of the wise created "three arts", namely grammar, rhetoric and dialectics (namely logic). Plato added "four arts" to his school, namely, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, and combined them. The former is an advanced course, while the latter is an elementary course. In the late Roman Empire, "Seven Arts" has become the main course of the school. The teachers in monastery schools are all priests, and the teaching methods are mainly dictation by teachers and recording and reciting by students. When individualized teaching is implemented, students' enrollment time, learning progress and time arrangement vary from person to person. School discipline is strict and corporal punishment is prevalent. The Bishop's School is located in the location of the Bishop, with good equipment and complete subject content. Generally speaking, there is only one teacher in each bishop school, usually a bishop. In his teaching activities, he only teaches and guides those students with higher level, and then they teach other students. Students who receive education in bishop schools often become an important source of church managers at all levels. The parish school is located in the region and village where the priest is located. It is an ordinary school run by the church for the secular masses, enrolling young men aged 7-20 (a few schools also enroll girls). Mainly to instill religious knowledge, but also to carry out preliminary reading, writing and arithmetic knowledge teaching. Compared with monastic schools and episcopal schools, parochial schools, although poorly equipped and small in scale, have a wider range of educational objects and more schools. By the late Middle Ages, missionary schools developed rapidly and became the most common form of school education at that time.

Compared with Christian schools, secular education in early Middle Ages in Western Europe was rather weak. The main educational form of secular feudal lords in this period was knight education. This is a special form of family education. The main goal is to cultivate the chivalrous spirit and skills of being brave and chivalrous, loyal to the monarch and respecting the Lord. Chivalry includes military morality, religious morality and social communication morality. Among them, martial arts ranks first, including courage, loyalty and generosity; Religious morality ranks second, specifically, loyalty, obedience and chastity to the church; Social communication morality ranks third, which is politeness, humility and kindness. Several so-called knight skills are manifested as "seven skills of knight", namely riding a horse, swimming, javelin, fencing, hunting, playing chess and poetry, which are also the main contents of knight education. Among them, the first five items are to cultivate a strong man who can fight well; Playing chess is to cultivate the ability of wit, composure, sizing up the situation and arranging attack and defense; Poetry is to cultivate the ability to praise martial arts, be loyal to lords and flatter ladies. The implementation of knight education is divided into three stages: 7 and 8 are family education stages. I mainly received my mother's education at home, including physical maintenance and exercise, moral education and religious knowledge. After 7 or 8 years old, it is the stage of early childhood education. Nobles send their children to the official residence of a higher-ranking nobleman as waiters, which is a virtual seat of etiquette and behavior norms in the upper class, and also some basic knowledge and skills. At the same time, we should also train in running, wrestling, horseback riding and fencing. 2 1 year-old, you can officially become a knight after a ceremony. Although knight education has the disadvantages of emphasizing military education, religious education and feudal moral education, ignoring the study of cultural knowledge, so that many knights are illiterate, before 12 century, a spirit of getting rid of violence, advocating chivalry, yearning for and pursuing loyal love was formed among knights, which helped to form a positive and optimistic attitude towards life and realistic spirit in society. Knight education pays attention to etiquette and elegant manners, which also has a certain influence on gentleman education that later appeared in Europe. A new educational institution came into being to meet the needs of the new citizen class. It is not the name of a school, but the general name of the schools attended by citizens' children. It includes schools of different types and sizes, such as guild schools run by handicraft associations and missionary schools set up by merchants associations. Although different urban schools have different curriculum, teachers' qualifications and study years, compared with traditional schools, urban schools have the following things in common: first, in terms of leadership, urban schools are gradually taken over by municipal authorities, who decide tuition fees, hire teachers, pay salaries, and determine children's admission qualifications. It is secular in nature, breaking the monopoly of Christianity on school education. Secondly, in terms of training objectives, urban schools mainly meet the needs of emerging cities for professionals engaged in industry and commerce. Therefore, although urban schools are mainly primary schools, they also have a certain nature of vocational training. Finally, in the teaching content, city schools emphasize secular knowledge, especially the basic knowledge of reading, writing and calculation, as well as various knowledge related to business and handicraft labor. Schools in some cities, especially low-level schools, generally teach in their own national languages, which is completely different from Christian schools that teach in Latin. By the15th century, almost all big cities in western Europe had established urban schools. The rise and development of urban schools has promoted the growth of capitalist mode of production in its infancy.