As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear in my previous blog posts on the Kush civilization, no has yet been able to decipher their ancient written language. So instead of making a blog post about nothing, I decided I would turn to another ancient African people whose language has been decoded. Luckily one such civilization, arguably one of the most studied in history, lied just to the north of Kush, and their cultures and language systems were closely linked in many respects - I'm talking of course, about the Egyptians. As we're shifting to the study of written knowledge and educational systems, I think the Egypt is a very interesting civilization to scrutinize because we have uncovered so much evidence about their educational system.
Just like our society today, and in any society in history, education in ancient Egypt began in the home. Parents instructed their children in acceptable social behavior, religious beliefs, and ideas about the world around them. This may not count as "formal" education, but without instilling these basic values their society would've been fractured and corrupt. Formal educators such as royal administrators and ministers in Egypt understood this principle very well. These leaders compiled records called "Books of Instruction" that contained basic rules on how to live a healthy life, with topics ranging from wisdom and obedience, to justice and humanity. One such example of these antecdotes comes from an author name Ptahhotep who said, "You may tell a wise man from the extent of his knowledge, a noble man by his good deeds."
You may be wondering what this really has to do with the educational system of a culture who has adopted writing, when such advice could've been transferred orally just like it had for generations. The reason this was important to Egyptian educational system as a whole was not only that it allowed these words of wisdom to be recorded and saved for future generations, but it gave instruction in the act of writing. In Egypt there were two main different types of education - vocational and scribal training. Young Kemite girls would be taught how to be mothers by their mothers(with a few exceptions like basket weavers), while most young boys would become apprentices to their fathers craft such as butchery, carpentry, or fishing. While a select group of almost exclusively boys attended scribal school. Here they copied the words of the "Books of Instructions" and many other writings, and along with writing learned arithmetic and science.
Looking at how absolutely controlled the educational system was in Ancient Egypt made me think of Dr. Burton's post about personal learning. In this time you were to follow in your in your father's footsteps and practice his trade, or be a mother, or if you had the money you could go to a more conventional school setting and learn how to read, write, and do math. However they were still a hugely successful people that remained one of the centers of influence and intellect in the old world for thousands of years. How did this happen? I believe it was a form of personal learning that may often be overlooked. In all the sources I read about education in ancient Egypt with all of their conflicting facts and different perspectives there was one common theme - education in the home. I think it's safe to say that the desire to learn is fed in the home, where parents teach and encourage you to explore the world around you. The parents may be teaching a type of folk knowledge by instructing children in moral values and understanding of the world, but most of the learning experiences of childhood come from person exploration. I believe the value of learning in the home is one of the key reasons our educational system has failed in many regards, and like Professor Burton said has become dependent on step by step instruction that encourages task completion rather than seeking knowledge. What do you think are some societal factors that have brought about this type of education?
As I was reading this post, Tanner, I started to wonder about what we, in our society, are expected to know about everything, and I wonder if some of the problems we have in our educational system are caused by being too broad? We expect everyone who goes through high school to have basic levels of knowledge in math, science, reading, writing, history, geography, etc., and rather than making everyone pick a few of those and perform exceptionally well in them (like we do in college), we set low standards and expect you to meet those standards in every subject. Sometimes, I wonder if we wouldn't be better off letting kids specialize a little bit more, since the real goal (in my opinion) ought to be teaching them to *learn*, not just teaching them to cram the night before your final exam so you can get a diploma.
ReplyDeleteTanner I think that the societal factors that have brought this about is the desire today to make everything more and more simple. As we attempt to make it so that people are able to succeed in everything what we have taken away is the desire to go and look at something and decide I'm am going to figure out how to do that. Today the only knowledge that gets praise is things that involve knowing thing that people believe is knowledge when skills with your hands is what was super important in the past.
ReplyDeleteDo you think this controlled educational setting helped push students/children to strive to be better and more educated and do you think this may have hindered them?
ReplyDeleteHaving been and still being teenagers, we understand when sometimes what our parents encourage us to do..we do completely opposite.
What kind of institution is better? One that pushes and controls too much or an institution that just accepts students as they are.
Tanner, as I see it, our current educational system is the result of our competitive society and perhaps a lack of instruction from the parents. They just seem to be sending children out of the home earlier and earlier. First there was kinder-garden, then pre-school and then day-care! Now parents can get their kids out of the house at the age of 18 months.
ReplyDeleteAt such a young age, shouldn't their parents be teaching them? Unfortunately, much this early instruction has fallen to others who perhaps can't dedicate the time required to each individual child. I believe that failure down the line is caused by this lack of education in the home.
To Shuan, I think that a controlled educational setting is necessary to get children to learn. Nowadays, kids spend their days watching TV and playing video games. I think that getting them to participate in "self-directed learning" would be nearly impossible. :)