Cricket201909

DO YOU GET tired carrying all those books to and from school?
Well, don’t groan too much. In ancient Sumer, a part of the Middle East
we now call Iraq, young people had it a lot harder. Yes, they went to school
5,000 years ago, too. But, instead of books, they carried armloads of clay
tablets. Talk about heavy reading!
Since they didn’t have pencils or pens, they used sharp sticks to
scratch their lessons on the tablets. The Sumerian alphabet didn’t look at
all like ours. It was mostly triangles and straight lines. You might think
a couple of chickens had gone disco dancing on the clay. Scholars have
spent lifetimes figuring out that alphabet and translating the mysterious
script. They’ve discovered some of the earliest poetry ever written, the
earliest medical records—and the earliest classroom compositions.
In one ancient essay, a student wrote about his day: He woke up late,
hurriedly took the lunch his mother made, and ran to school, where he
almost got in trouble with his teacher. He handed in his homework,
recited in class, and was scolded for not paying attention. He was glad
to go home.
A few days ago, a young friend stopped by to show me a composition
she had just written. It began: “I woke up late, grabbed the lunch my
mother made, and ran all the way to school. I almost got in trouble with
my teacher. I handed in my homework... .”
Five thousand years is a long time. Or is it?