Please read the selected theses below and pick the top four. In a comment to this post, tell me your selection (arranged 1 to 4 with 1 being the better) and explain why you chose these four. After you have posted your choices/comments, you may rewrite your own thesis if you wish. I may have changed a few words of the originals for concision.

1. During the Renaissance, the concept of education experienced a refinement from the Humanities’ broad purpose of universal education to a more focused goal of learning that which elevates the individual and guarantees personal intellectual freedom and enjoyment of one’s earthly life.
2. Renaissance philosophers stressed learning from a diverse range of sources as opposed to the Humanists who sought to establish a formalized system of education to produce what they considered the ideal learned man.
3. During the Renaissance there was a shift in education that cultivated inward virtue and proper humanity to seek legitimacy and open the way to power and fame by using the liberal arts to advance their practical skills.
4. Although Renaissance figures agree on the role of education to make man free, educational ideology shifted from the ‘complete’ and ‘universal’ education of the early Humanists to the idea of education best tailored for usefulness and delight.
5. The 16th century marked a shift in the Renaissance’s views of how one should serve his society.
6. The volatile political atmosphere of the Renaissance induced a need to stabilize the states through a cultivation and application of the liberal studies.
7. A liberal arts education shifted during the Renaissance from one focused on universal learning to one more specialized for mental and social achievement, personal success, and profit.
8. Over the course of the Renaissance, the focus of education shifted from one aimed at personal enlightenment and freedom to one aimed at social profit.
9. Though liberal studies were embraced, conflict among humanists concerning ideals and goals varied based on a citizen’s role in society.
10. While Renaissance humanists caused a shift in social, cultural, and educational ideas, their teachings were intended for the ‘new’ elites.
11. During the Renaissance, the ideals of education shift away from the Scholastics’ focus on belief to uphold the importance of taking pleasure in learning.
12. During the Renaissance educators shifted focus from Scholasticism, the love and study of God as the highest good to humanity, to humanism, the love and study of man as the greatest good.
13. Renaissance thought was a marriage of the logical inquiry of the Greeks, the civic humanism of the Romans, and the theology of Christianity, all viewed through an introspective lens native to 14th-century Italy.
14. An education revolution took place during the era of the Renaissance, one that engaged the upper-classes in different and more useful subjects.
15. At the core of Humanism was a fundamental shift in the way one should be educated.
16. Renaissance men studied the humanities in order to become active civic participants so that they could rule and cultivate their souls and become ideal men on earth.
17. Renaissance scholars’ opinions differed greatly on what an ideal [human?] was and how to reach it.