Christ raises the plough beam and then teaches the ploughman the right way to plough, while the latter, goad in hand, regards him with amazement and gratitude.

Did Jesus of Nazareth attend school? ......despite gaps in the canonical (sanctioned) gospels covering this period of his life, it seems that medieval people may have believed he did through learning popular apocryphal legends that claim to fill in the missing years of his early life.

In everyday conversation "apocryphal" refers to a story of doubtful authenticity, but one that is nevertheless told frequently and widely believed.  The New Testament apocrypha are books accepted by neither Catholic nor Protestant faiths, although artists and theologians have used them as sources of information and ideas.  They include several surviving "Infancy Gospels", literature created in the early Christian church to satisfy the need for details about the childhood life of Jesus.  For example, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas - he of "Doubting Thomas" fame - describes the doings of Jesus during his boyhood.  According to Thomas, Jesus proved to be an infant prodigy at school, instructing his teachers in the unsuspected mysteries of the alphabet and astonishing his family and friends by the miracles that he performed.

 A curious exhibit in the British Museum (the Victoria & Albert Museum has several more) are eight, 14^th Century glazed ceramic tiles of English or Norman manufacture.  The scenes depicted on the Tring Tiles were probably copied from on an illuminated manuscript and are thought to have been part of a set that originally formed a frieze in the chancel of Tring Parish Church, but were removed during 19^th Century restoration work.  They illustrate Christ's childhood miracles and misadventures - some of which occurred at school - and are loosely based on tales in the apocryphal Infancy Gospels. Most of the tiles contain two scenes, with the narrative operating in the same manner as a modern-day comic strip and in the process introducing a touch of humour to events.

Members of the Tring congregation in the early 14^th century might have learned the Tiles' meanings through sermons and from other members of the congregation.  They might have learned that a particular tile shows, on the right, Jesus (recognisable by his halo) entering school and then standing in front of his teacher to receive a slap on the face.  Another shows a schoolmate jumping on Jesus' back and immediately being struck dead; however, in the next scene Jesus performs a miracle and restores him to life.

See the British Museum's collection of Tring Tiles online.