Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 235, Alfred's

Educational Reforms. Also known as, is our Children Learnin'.

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Now today we're going to talk about Alfred's Educational Reforms and they span a really

large period of time. They started around where we're at right now in the story, but they

continue for most of the rest of his life. So much like the military reforms, don't

you imagine all of this happening over the course of one month? This was a massive project

that took place over the course of many years, and it also would have occurred in fits

and starts. So think about it sort of like talking about the 80s as a general concept,

rather than talking specifically about what happened in 1986. When we're talking about

Alfred's reforms, we're talking about an era. And let's get to that era. So one of the

interesting things about piecing together the life of Alfred is that we find little

windows into who he was in the strangest of places. Most kings from this era didn't write

much down for us to read, but Alfred did. In fact, he translated entire books, which we

will be talking about today. But he didn't just translate those books. He also included

his own thoughts in them as well. So for example, in his translation of Pastoral Care by Pope

Gregory the Great, Alfred tells us, quote, there were happy times then throughout England,

and the kings who had authority over these people obeyed God and his messengers, and how

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