Ancient Civilizations

1. Ancient Civilizations Egyptian - Education

2. The Educated Few although most people couldn't read and write Egyptian society was based on written records if you could write you were never short of work life of a scribe – writer – was probably envied by others you didn’t have to work under the hot sun and you were highly regarded in society

3. Who Went to School? anyone could pay to go to school therefore having an education depended on whether you could afford it peasants did their best to educate their sons girls from poor families were rarely educated while in rich families they learned to read and write like the boys several kinds of schools noble family members might be educated in the palace with royal children other schools included temple schools and village schools

4. In the Classroom boys started school when they were about 5 learned both hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts spent a lot of time copying and reciting texts to perfect their writing and reading skills to teach younger students teachers used a book called Kemyt – means completion was a simple text of model letters, phrases and expressions older students studied more advanced books often classics of Egyptian literature – such as the Books of Wisdom – which gave advice to young men about how to behave other texts talked about how wonderful it was to be scribe rather than a craftsman

5. The Next Step once a student had mastered the basic arts of reading and writing he could be a scribe many never went beyond this position if you could afford it you could further your studies – mathematics, history, literature, religion, geography, languages, surveying, engineering, astronomy, medicine or accounting

6. The Busy Scribe scribes composed letters or legal documents (wills, marriages and business deals) copied out documents in temple libraries wrote down questions for people who wanted to ask a god for advice there was a scribe in every government department if you were clever and had good connections you could better yourself if you kept tax and legal records or worked in the foreign office – you might become and adviser or eventually a minister