The most important and most significant reason for the increase, though, was the production of the many new schools available for all students. Children could start of in petty schools, modernly called preschools, where the alphabet was taught orally and written and where simple prayers were taught. There were also elementary schools and secondary schools where Latin as well as vernacular were taught. Other types of schools were song schools (where children learned liturgy), writing schools, and reading and reciting schools. Since not all people could afford private schools, there were many different sponsored, public schools. Town schools, cathedral schools, parish schools, guild schools, chantry schools, and dame schools (where women used their own homes to teach small children manors and basic things) were all different choices for children to receive there education. There were some boarding and private schools that were supported by religious groups and state authorities, making them tuition free. But even some did not go to school, yet they were to gain enough from apprenticing. "Apprentices were often taught literacy skills on the job" (Grendier 432).
During the Middle Ages, people did not think of themselves as belonging to any particular country or city-state. Their main loyalties were to their local lords, to the Christian Church, and then to the Pope. One of the reasons, which seems unlikely but is true, that the change in political thought occurred is because of the trauma experienced in the Black Death. But with the new ideas sprouting, political leaders started acting differently too. "Leaders of the city-states, who got their support from the poorer people- starting preaching "citizens should give their main loyalty to the city-state rather than to the Church." (Wood, 10). Other politicians were creating new types of government rule, and were showing their opinion through books.