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Religious education. This was predominant as the priests wanted to inculcate in the minds of the learners proper respect for the gods, moral conduct, and a preparation for life after death. * Vocational-professional education. This was also predominant because they wanted to perpetuate the artistic skills that embellished heir temples and other buildings and their wonderful achievements in engineering and architecture. Military education. This was only for the sons of the nobles. * Education for public administration. This was for those who aspired for positions In the government because the pharaoh needed many assistants to Implement his desires. * Priesthood education. This was for those who aspired to become priests. * Home arts education. This was largely vocational and offered to women. The Egyptian woman was accorded higher regard than In other Eastern countries at that time. They could even Inherit the throne. Writing, reading, and language education.
The Egyptians used the hieroglyphics form of writing (from the Greek words hollers, “sacred” and glyphs, to carve). These were pictures or signs that represented Ideas. The hieroglyphics were great In number but later they were simplified Into what was called hieratic (sacred) and later still Into a form called demotic. * Reading, writing, and language. The learners learned the language of their respective vocations, especially commerce. * Religious and secular literature. They studied aphorisms, proverbs, moral Judgments, etc. Artistry in metals and lapidary. Mathematics, especially geometry and surveying , were studied due to the frequent inundations of their field which washed away the landmarks which had to be replaced. * Subjects in astronomy, engineering, architecture, physics, medicine, embalming, dentistry, and law were taught in the temple schools by the priests. * Music, dancing, playing the harp, cymbals, drum, lyre, guitar, tambourine, and clapping to rhythm. * Sports, games, and physical education with swimming, wrestling, archery, and hunting and fishing taken as vocations and avocations.
The military schools offered training in the use of the bow and arrow, battle ax, lance, mace, and shield. Egypt became a military power in the ancient world from 1600 to 1400 B. C. AGENCIES OF EDUCATION Education was under the control of religion. This was a part of early Egyptian culture. * Home. The home provided for basic education. Home skills and rudiments of right and wrong were taught at home. * Temple schools. The temple schools were for higher education, especially for the professions such as engineering, architecture, medicine, dentistry, surveying, etc. * Military schools.
These schools were only for the sons of the nobles; their purpose was for defense and aggression. * Court schools. To these schools went those aspiring for a public office and those taking up law. Law was taught by a corps, Pharaohs corps of public officials, part of a function of priesthood. * Vocational schools. These were schools of arts and trades. ORGANIZATION OF GRADES * The young studied at home, usually with the mother as teacher. * At age 5, the boys attended the reading and writing schools under the priests if the parents could afford to pay the school fees.
At 17, the boys entered the schools that offered their vocations. Apprenticeship. This was the dominant method especially in the lower and the vocational schools. * Dictation, memorization, copying, imitation, repetition. These were standard practices in teaching especially in the lower grades. * Observation and participation. These were also standard practices of teaching, especially in the vocational courses. * Although some lay teachers were allowed to teach in the lower schools, the teachers in the temple and higher schools were always priests and scribes.
Flogging was used to penalize failure to learn. The pupils and students had to pay a certain amount of school fees even in the lower schools. Hence, education was not universal. Outstanding Contribution to Education The outstanding contribution of the early Egyptians to education were probably geometrical measurement and surveying. They were the first to use these two mathematical techniques and their mastery was due to the annual inundation of their fields by the Nile River, necessitating the remembering of their fields again and gain and restoring the landmarks lost during floods.
DE refusal of the priestly class to change the accepted rules and practices. The old prevented the young from learning further because of apprenticeship. But the chief cause was “the incapacity of the Egyptian mind to ascend from the practical and empirical to the scientific and universal. Conceptual thinking, reasoning, creative imagination, and intellectual curiosity were foreign to them. They saw in knowledge only a means of practical advancement; they had love of knowledge for its own sake. ”