Refection7

Most children idolized their parents or the adult figure in the household and the children of ancient Egypt were no different. In ancient Egypt most children learned their eventual trade or occupation of the adult behavior from their father or a tutor. Just as in modern time, children learned the skills, moral attitudes, and views of life. During the ancient civilizations, there were three approaches to education. The fist approach was the creation of the “wisdom literature.” Wisdom literature was books of instructions that were addressed by elders of the royal, noble, and scribal. Written in these texts were truth telling and fair dealing which were offered as a social desirable. The elders made it clear that truth telling was more advantageous than lying and injustice. Wisdom of literature was used as teaching tools for schools of scribes. The second approach was vocational training which was apart of scribal and at home teaching. Many young men didn’t have the choice to choose their career path so they had to follow in the family trade or profession. Even the highest office official had their sons followed him for training and at the end of his career it would be passed down to his son. The only person who did not tutor his children was the king. Senenmut, which was the vizier and the royal architect, was the tutors for the king’s children. During this period, these approaches to education were for the young men only. Girls during that time learned how to dance, sing, and manage a household. Because sculptors, artist, and draftsmen had to be literate, a 19th dynasty textbook was created, which is the third approach to education. This book is called Papyrus Anastasi I and arithmetic sums in a military context. Many of these men had to convert texts on papyri and also ostraca into hieroglyphs on temple and tomb walls. In ancient Egypt, during that time, they called physical education the arts of war which included riding a horse, the use of weapons, and guiding a chariot. Students had to recite their texts aloud until they new it by memory. There was no set length or number of years for education. There is no evidence of any time of formal schools in the old kingdom but the new kingdom had at least two. Mesopotamia is a contemporary civilization with Egyptian civilization. By this time formal education was extended from reading, writing, and religion to higher learning in medicine, law, and astrology. Its aim was to train scribes and priests of the upper class youths. The priests dominated the intellectual and educational domain just like in Egypt. Activity and training would be held in the library which is located in the temple. Oral repetition, individual instructions, copying of models, and memorization was the methods of teaching and learning. Apprenticeship can be traced back to Hammurabi, a king of Babylon. He written the earliest law called the code of Hammurabi. These laws were covered in a code because of its importance. The code states that an apprentice should be treated as a adopted son. Temple schools was basically a tomb were children would go to learn cuneiform which was difficult to learn. They would used tablets made out of clay as a textbook. The children began making single wedges in different position and eventually went on to groups of wedges. The first chapters of many Sumerian works were handed down from tablets by students. Many children also studied arithmetic which they based their number system on ten, and multiplied ten by six to get the next unit. After the Sumerians learned how to write and figure, they kept documents about everything which allowed them to have a strong sense of private property.