Teachers would “cane” misbehaving students – hitting them with a long stick. Students could get hit for a variety of things: being tardy, misbehaving in class, messy handwriting.
Only the wealthy could afford to send children to school.
“scribe” means “one who writes.”
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Education in Mesopotamia
Prepared students for careers as scribes, doctors, judges, priests, astronomers – though scribes were its chief focus.
Almost all students were male.
The few women scribes mostly worked for other women.
What were the “workbooks” of ancient Mesopotamia?
Schools were called “edubbas” or “tablet houses.”
Work done in Sumerian (written language), NOT in Akkadian (spoken language), though students spoke in Akkadian in class!
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Education in Mesopotamia
Work consisted of:
Copying simple lines of cuneiform from teacher, myths, or legends.
Memorizing lists of Sumerian words.
Writing words out repeatedly.
Students used a “stylus,” a pointed writing tool made from a reed, to imprint cuneiform writing onto clay tablets.
Boys started school when they were young and finished in their late teens.
No sports, arts, history, or science classes – only literature, math, and music.
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Pagirum
He was a well-known slave who lived around 1650 BCE.
He was self-employed, made a living by writing letters & contracts for people.
He became well educated and understood math; because of this, he could survey houses and lands to calculate sizes.
He was rewarded by the king with 51-acre field!
Story illustrates that, while rare, social mobility, to an extent, was somewhat possible in Mesopotamia.