Reflection 7

The three different types of education in ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia consisted of homeschooling, apprenticeship, and temple education. Each form of education and teaching had its uniqueness. Often more than not, in the days of the ancient civilizations, children were considered privileged if they were able to attend temple education. Temple education was for scribes. One had to be born into this position like inheriting the throne from a king. To become an official scribe, one’s father had to be a scribe, and his father’s father, and so on. The scribes were the only people with a formal education. They were thought to have an insight and be very creative. Scribes held a very important position in the Egyptian culture particularly because they recorded everything that happened. The Egyptians felt that with the invention of writing, ones thoughts and ideas did not have to die with them, with the ability to read and write those thoughts and ideas were passed down from different generations through writing. In these formal temple schools, the students had to copy passages from a text called the “Book of Kemyt.” After doing so, they practiced daily exercises given to them by their teacher,(pupil-master), which consisted of copying and writing different models of letters, satirical compositions, poems, etc. Another form of early education was homeschooling. This, along with apprenticeship, were the most popular. That is because not all citizens were privileged enough to attend the temple schools. Girls from families who were less privileged learned how to sing, dance, play instruments, as well as manage a household. At home teaching was also that an official would take their son as an assistant to learn the trades of the work. This was very similar to apprenticeship. With apprenticeship came responsibility. The pupil had to learn the trade of their instructor. The instructor, in turn, had to treat their pupil as if he was a son. Hammurabi’s code was instilled into them leading them to treat their pupil as an adopted son, and if the pupil did not learn the handicraft they would return to their own father’s home. These students had a very different type of education. Education in a formal school was more directed to general knowledge about several different areas of study; whereas apprenticeship was learning a specific task and mastering it by hands on experiences. In modern times, schools require students to get the general knowledge of the most important subjects during grade schools. Afterwards, those who wish to go further in their education can do so by attending college where they can study the area they choose and become masters or even doctors of that subject area. Modern society doesn’t really have the apprenticeship experience like in ancient civilizations. Students have hands on experience through service learning requirements but only to a certain extent. Though there are vocational and trade schools which allow for students to jump into the career of their choice directly instead of doing a lot of general requirement courses. Having on the job training would be a great deed, like Teach for America, but if it accompanies the normal education it would be the best.



'Oooowwwwwwwwwww"