important for elders to preserve and transmit that knowledge
for future generations.
In later, literate cultures more formal schooling was
common, at least for boys and for members of royal and up-
per classes. In ancient Rome, there was a legislated system
of universal education. Egypt, China, India, Mesopotamia,
Greece, and Rome all had formal school systems; the old-
est of these schools operated in Mesopotamia and date back
some 4,000 years. In most of these schools a primary purpose
was to teach literacy. Children were drilled in reading and
writing, oft en having to learn complex writing systems based
on pictographs or ideograms, such as in China. In some cul-
tures, emphasis was placed on mathematics as well. As time
progressed, some school systems allowed older students to
specialize in such fi elds as medicine, history, astronomy, rhet-
oric (public speaking and argumentation), and other fi elds.
Young people who successfully completed their education
were oft en able to secure positions as scribes, or writers of
documents for the court; as civil offi cials; and, in the case of
those adept at mathematics, as architects and builders. For-
mal educational systems also became more selective, as ex-
ams were administered and students were selected for their
desire and aptitude.
Early education systems, though, focused on more than
career education. Formal schooling also existed to teach
young people the norms, values, and proper behaviors of
their culture. In ancient China, for example, students were
drilled in the teaching of Confucius, the ancient Chinese phi-
losopher. A major function of many ancient schools was the
teaching of religion. In ancient India, for instance, students
spent a great deal of time memorizing verses from the Ve-
das, the ancient Hindu scriptures. In general, students were
taught about the deities that were worshiped in their religious
tradition and became familiar with the basic religious texts.
School was generally not easy. In some cultures students
were taken away from their homes and even communities to
study in isolated schools, where they had no distractions. Th e
conditions tended to be austere, and schoolmasters were of-
ten harsh and unforgiving. Further, much education tended
to consist of rote memorization. Students had to memorize
written characters, and when they studied texts, such as
works of literature or scripture, they learned those texts by
heart. Even the study of rhetoric oft en consisted of little more
than the memorization of formal exercises.
AFRICA
BY DIANNE WHITE OYLER
Education in the African society and culture of the ancient
world was designed to prepare children for their lives as com-
petent, responsible, contributing adults in the community,
thus prolonging the life of the community for posterity. In
both preliterate societies and a large segment of literate soci-
eties, indigenous education was the norm and was controlled
by the family or community leaders. In literate societies not
all members of the community were literate. Th ose who were
educated in the literate tradition also received the same pri-
mary education as those in preliterate societies but received
additional formal schooling that enabled them to read and
write and occupy positions as leaders in government and
business.
In the preliterate community the educational leaders
achieved their position by the status conferred on them from
respect for the knowledge they had gained over a lifetime—
by benefi t of longevity. Th ese were elders at the head of each
family or clan, who worked together to govern the commu-
nity. Even in the context of a community that existed as part
of a larger political unit of chiefdom or kingdom, educating
children remained the responsibility of the community el-
ders. Th e elders taught children how to be adults. In some
communities this meant being an apprentice to the parents—
daughters learned how to carry gourds of water from the river
and how to farm, and boys learned how to carry loads of tree
branches for fuel to the compound and how to hunt. For most
communities, however, there was more control over estab-
lishing what was taught as the norms of knowledge and be-
havior. For example, in West Africa “secret societies” and in
South Africa “age grade systems” established the curriculum
for boys and girls to learn the requirements of their place as
adults in their communities.
For the most part, boys and girls were educated sepa-
rately, with respected elders as their tutors. As early as age 10
children might be removed from the community and isolated
for this intensive process, which could last three to four years.
Th e student would leave the community as a child and return
as an adult who, in some cases, had a new name. Boys learned
how to be an adult hunter, husband, and father, and girls
learned how to be an adult farmer, wife, and mother. Th is
education included step-by-step instruction in a curriculum
of ethnic and family history, community values and relation-
ships, religion and cosmology, songs and dances, and accept-
able behavior for all expected roles. Specialized instructions
as a priest, diviner, healer, tailor, weaver, and so on were re-
ceived within the family, where the new adult would learn
skills that had been handed down from father to son. Alter-
natively, he would apprentice to another family member or
a member of the community. Th e curriculum was delivered
through oral literature, including folktales and legends that
communicated the group’s history, dilemma tales that honed
decision-making skills, riddles and proverbs that exercised
the thinking processes and taught community mores and ap-
propriate behavior, and praise songs, stories, and dance.
When the new adults entered the community, they be-
came members of the male or female “secret society” or “age
set” because they now possessed the “secret” information of
adulthood. Similarly to members of a graduating class, they
had a com mon bond t hat enabled t hem to for m sig n i fi cant co-
operative groups for economic and social needs. While these
new adults might have been ready for marriage, depending
upon the community, the males were restricted for a period of376 education: Africa