charlemagne...

ok, so today is the birthday of Charlemagne, born in Ingelheim, Germany (742). He never learned to read or write, and he used a template to sign documents. Although he couldn't read, he admired scholars who could, and he brought as many as he could to his court. Up until that time, most schooling had been limited to the study of sacred texts. Charlemagne started schools that taught all kinds of worldly knowledge, and said that they should "make no difference between the sons of serfs and of freemen, so that they might come and sit on the same benches to study grammar, music and arithmetic." He tried to get all his subjects to speak the same form of early German, so they'd stop praying in mutually incomprehensible dialects......just so you know, the above info was from writers almanac.....i am related to charlemagne....this connection is one of the few things agreed upon by me and my conservative kin.......alas, charlemagne was prolific....and there are countless others like myself who can claim him as a relative.......i can fully understand the not being able to read and write german part......