In the preindustrial city, many human activities that we moderns think of as more appropriately housed in private or semiprivate space often occurred in public. Educating the young was one such activity. In ancient Rome, for example, primary school was typically conducted on the street, "under the awning outside some shop and invaded by all the noises of the street from which only a screen or tent cloth separated it" (Carcopino, 1940:105). Or, in twelfth century Paris, where older students from all over Europe came to study with individual scholars, much of the instruction was of a highly public character.

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 175