Education in Old civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and North China

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The history of civilization started in the Middle East about 3000 B.C, while the North China civilization started about a millennium and a half later. The Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations grew nearly instantaneously in the first civilization stage 3000–1500 B.C. Although these civilizations differed, they shared immense literary achievements. The requirement for the continuation of these greatly developed civilizations prepared writing and official education indispensable.

Egypt:

Egyptian values and education were conserved and controlled primarily by the priests, a influential intellectual exclusive in the Egyptian theocracy who also served as the political bulwarks by preventing cultural variety. The human kinds as well as such applied subjects as science, medicine, mathematics, and geometry were in the hands of the priests, who taught in official schools. Professional skills concerning to such fields as architecture, engineering, and statue were usually conveyed outside the situation of official schooling.

Egyptians developed two kinds of official schools for honored youth under the management of governmental officials and priests: one for transcribers and the other for priest learners. At the age of 5, students entered the writing school and continued their studies in reading and writing up to the age of 16 or 17. At the age of 13 or 14 the schoolboys were also provided training in offices for which they were being prepared. Priesthood training started at the shrine college, which boys entered at the age of 17; the duration of training depends upon the demands for different priestly offices. It is not evident whether or not the applied sciences established a part of the analytically organized program of the shrine college.

Rigid technique and severe discipline were applied to attain uniformity in cultural transmission, since deviation from the traditional pattern was firmly forbidden. Drill and memorization were the particular techniques employed. However, as noted, Egyptians also utilized a work-study technique in the final stage of the training for scribes.

Mesopotamia:

Mesopotamia developed education exactly similar to that of its counterpart with respect to its purpose and training. Formal education was applied and aimed to train transcribers and priests. It was stretched from basic reading, writing, and religion to higher learning in law, medicine, and astrology. Normally, youth of the upper classes were prepared to become scribes, who ranged from copyists to librarians and teachers. This shows that supremacy of priestly education. Details are not known about higher education, but the progress of the priestly work sheds light upon the wide landscape of intellectual pursuit.

As in the case of Egypt, the priests in Mesopotamia dominated the intellectual and educational sphere as well as the applied. The centre of intellectual action and training was the library, which was mostly housed in a shrine under management of influential priests. Methods of teaching and learning were memorization, oral repetition, copying models, and specific instruction. It is believed that the exact copying of scripts was the hardest and most strenuous and served as the test of excellence in learning. The period of education was extensive and rigorous, and discipline was harsh.

North China:

In North China, the civilization of which started with the emergence of the Shang era, complex educational practices were applied at early date. Actually, each significant foundation of the formation of modern Chinese character was now established, to much extent, about 3,000 years ago.

Chinese antique official education was distinguished by its markedly secular and moral character. Its paramount purpose was to grow a sense of moral sensitivity and duty toward people and the state. Even in the early civilizational stage, harmonious human relations, rituals, and music formed the curriculum. Formal colleges and schools perhaps antedate the Zhou dynasty of the 1st millennium B.C, at least in the imperial capitals. Local states perhaps had less-organized institutions, such as halls of study, village schools, and district schools. With regard to actual techniques of education, old Chinese learned from bamboo books and obtained moral training in rituals by expression of mouth and example. Rigid rote learning, which typified later Chinese education, looks to have been condemned. Education was considered as the procedure of individual development from within.