Reflection Paper 7

Ancient Egyptian Approach to Education Education in the ancientcivilizations of Egypt varied from homeschooling, apprenticeship, andtemple education. Most people also learned from mimicking their parentsandcopying what they did. Along with the skills they were developing camethemoral attitudes and views of life according to the article Education inEarly Egypt by Marie Parsons (2005). Moreover, depending on what yourstature was depended on what exactly you’d be taught at that timeperiod.People of higher class were taught how to read and write. To be able todoso meant you were very important and people of that society gave highrespect to those. According to the text, “Truth-telling andfair-dealingwere offered as social desirable and more advantageous than lying andinjustice. Justice, wisdom, obedience, humanity and restraint wereofferedas components of the well-ordered life (Marie Pasons, 2005). Overall,nomatter what class you were in, everyone had the same kind of morality.Homeschooling and apprenticeship took on the same role in the sensethat ifyou were being taught how to be a scribe then some taught their youngathome and passed down what they know to their young. The King was theonlyone who personally did not teach their children, and had tutors whowouldpersonally instruct the Kings children. Girls who were not as fortunatelearned more on how to keep a household, like cooking and cleaning.Theywere also taught how to sing, play musical instruments and dance aswell.It was important that a girl were to learn these skills in case theywereto take on temple service. Children of farmers and fishermen took onevenless formal education. They were mainly taught how to sow, clean,harvest,how to catch fish and cook, to name a few. Mesopotamia took on the sameforms of education; however the skills always had a specific purpose.Forinstance, formal education took on the purpose to procreate priest andscribes. They also did not just learn about religion, and how to readandwrite. They also learned about astrology, medicine, and law. Thewealthythat learned how to read and write went on to become copyist,librarians,and teachers. They were also a lot of schools for priest and numeroustemples. Egyptian temples were more like shrines rather than a place ofpublic worship. Only the priests were the ones allowed to be at theactualsanctuaries where scared rites and ceremonies were performed. Templeswerenot like churches, it had a more supernatural meaning to them becausetheybelieved in this One God. This specific God was not human and had theseabilities to help the land the people. Also, all temples were equallyimportant; meaning not one temple had more significance then another.Ascan be seen, education in the ancient civilization of Egypt consistedofhomeschooling, apprenticeship, and temple education. All of them had apurpose as to which made that civilization so successful.