teaching as a p

rofession

search for its h

istorical develop

men

t in th

e ancien

t and m

iddle ages

Submitted by:

Mark Angelo A. Ordonio

EDUC 122 - F

June 22, 2012

middle east In Mesopotamia, the early logographic system of cu-

neiform script took many years to master; thus, few

were hired as scribes to be trained in its reading and

writing. Only royal offspring and sons of the rich and

professionals such as scribes, physicians, and temple

administrators, were schooled. The other boys were

taught to trade, the other girls were left home for

housekeeping and cooking.

When a syllabic script became more widespread,

many of the population became literate. Later still in

Babylonian times, there were libraries in most towns

and temples, from which arose a whole social class of

scribes, mostly employed in agriculture.

In ancient Egypt, literacy was concentrated among

and educated elite of scribes. Only people from cer-

tain backgrounds were allowed to train to became

scribes, in the service of temple, pharaonic, and mili-

tary authorities. The hieroglyph system was always

difficult to learn, preserving the scribes’ status. The

rate of literacy in Pharaonic Egypt during most peri-

ods from 3rd to 1st millennium BC has been estimat-

ed at not more than one percent.

In ancient Israel, high priests caused schools to be

opened to be able to read, learn, teach, and write the

Torah, the fundamental religious text. Emphasis

was given on developing good memory skills in addi-

tion to comprehensive oral repetition. Despite this

schooling system, the literacy rate was reported

about three percent, most children of which were not

able to write even their own name.

ancien

t civilizations

teaching b

ased on

one’s gen

der, an

d social statu

s india

In ancient India, during the Vedic period from about

to 1500 BC to 600 BC, most education was based on

the Veda: hymns, formulas, and incantations, recited

or chanted by priests of a pre-Hindu tradition, and

later Hindu texts and scriptures. Education, at first

freely available in Vedic society, became over time

more discriminatory as the caste system , originally

based on occupation evolved, with the brahman

(priests) being the most privileged of the castes.

The oldest of the Upanishads, another part of the

Hindu scriptures, encouraged an exploratory learn-

ing process where teachers and students were co-

travellers in a search for truth. The teaching meth-

ods used reasoning and questioning; however, noth-

ing was labelled as the final answer.

The Gurukul system of education supported tradi-

tional Hindu residential schools of learning; typically

the teacher’s house or a monastery. Education was

free, but students from well-to-do families paid

“Gurudakshina,” a voluntary contribution after the

completion of their studies. At the Gurukuls, the

teachers imparted knowledge of religion, scriptures,

philosophy, literature, warfare, statecraft, medicine,

astrology, and history. The corpus of Sanskrit litera-

ture encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and dra-

ma as well as technical scientific, philosophical, and

generally Hindu religious texts, though many central

texts of Buddhism and Jainism have also been com-

posed in Sanskrit.

china One of the most learned men of all time, Confucius became the first private teacher in history. Born of a once

noble family fallen on a hard time of the state, he strived as an adolescent for knowledge for nowhere was he

allowed for education; all the teachers were government officials and there was no way around the State’s poli-

cy. Within his perseverance to learn and to teach, people sought him out to have their sons taught.

During the Zhou Dynasty (1045 BC to 256 BC), there five national schools in the capital city for the aristocrats

and nobility. The schools mainly taught the Six Arts: rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and

mathematics. According to the Book of Rituals, at age twelve, boys learned arts related to ritual music and

dance and when older, archery and chariot driving. Girls learned ritual, correct deportment, silk production

and weaving.

During the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 221 AD), boys were taught at age seven reading, writing and calculation.

In 124 BC, Emperor Wudi established Imperial Academy, the curriculum of which was Five Classics of Confu-

cius. Later during the Ch’in Dynasty (246-207 BC), a hierarchy of officials was set up to provide central control

over the outlying areas of the empire. TO enter this hierarchy, both literacy and knowledge of the increasing

body of philosophy were required.

formal ed

ucation

in th

e mid

dle ages

Initiating teach

ing as a profession

based

on variou

s discip

lines

greece & rome In the city-states of ancient Greece, most education

was private, except in Sparta. In Athens, aside from

the two-year military training, the state played little

part in schooling. Anyone could open a school and

decide the curriculum. Parents could choose a school

offering the subjects they wanted their children to

learn; however, girls rarely received formal educa-

tion. The richest students continued their education

by studying with sophists, from whom they could

learn subjects earned by the elite classes.

The education system in the Greek city-state of

Sparta was entirely different, designed to create

warriors with complete obedience, courage, and

physical perfection. At seven, boys were taken away

form their homes to live in dormitories or military

barracks to learn sports, endurance and fighting,

and little else, with harsh discipline; most of the pop-

ulation was illiterate.

The first schools in Ancient Rome arose by the mid-

dle of 4th century BC, concerned with basic socializa-

tion and rudimentary education of young Roman

children. At the height of the Roman Republic, and

later the Roman Empire, the Roman educational sys-

tem gradually found its final form. Normally both

boys and girls were educated, though not necessarily

together. In a system much like the one that predom-

inates in the modern world, the Roman education

system developed arranged schools in tiers. The edu-

cator Quintilian recognized the importance of start-

ing education as early as possible, noting that

memory is retentive at an early age.

islamic world During the 6th and 7th centuries, the Academy of

Gundishapur, originally the intellectual center of the

Sassanid empire and subsequently a Muslim center

of learning, offered training in medicine, philosophy,

theology, and science. The faculty were versed not

only in Zoroastrian and Persian traditions, but in

Greek and Indian learning as well.

The House of Wisdom in Baghdad was a library,

translation and educational center from the 9th to

13th centuries. Works on astrology, mathematics,

agriculture, medicine, and philosophy were translat-

ed. Drawing on Persian, Indian, and Greek texts,

including those of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Hip-

pocrates, Euclid, Plotinus, Galen, Sushruta, Chara-

ka, Aryabhata and Brahmagupta, the scholars accu-

mulated a great collection of knowledge in the world,

and built on it through their own discoveries. The

House was unrivalled center for the study of human-

ities and for sciences, including mathematics, astron-

omy, medicine, chemistry, geography, and zoology.

Baghdad was known as the world’s richest city and

center for intellectual development of the time, and

had a population of over a million, the largest in its

time.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the town of Timbuk-

tu in the West African nation of Mali became an Is-

lamic center of learning with students coming from

as far away as the Middle East. The town was home

to the prestigious Sankore university and other mad-

rasas., primary focus of which is teaching the

Qur’an.

central and south america Aztec, an ethnic group in central Mexico, had their children educated with the parents, supervised by the au-

thorities of their calpolli. Part of the education involved learning a collection of sayings of the old

(huehuetlatolli) that embodied the Aztecs’ ideals. Judged by their language, most of the huehuetlatolli seemed

to have the evolved over several centuries, predating the Aztecs and most likely adopted from other cultures.

Inca education on the other hand was divided into two principal spheres: education for the upper classes and

education for the general population. The royal classes and a few specifically chosen individuals from the prov-

inces of the Empire were formally educated by the Amautas (wise men), while the general population learned

knowledge and skills from their immediate forbears.

The Amautas constituted a special class of men similar to the bards of Great Britain, including philosophers,

poets, and priests who kept the oral histories of the Incas alive by imparting the knowledge of their culture,

history, customs, traditions throughout the kingdom. Considered the most highly educated and respected men

in the empire, Amautas were largely entrusted with educating those of royal blood, as well as other young

members of conquered cultures specially chosen to administer the regions. Thus education throughout territo-

ries was socially discriminatory, most people not receiving the formal education that royalty received.

references

(n. a.). (2012). History of Education. Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=History_of_education&oldid=497697997

(n. a.). (2008). Only A Teacher (Teaching Timeline). Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://www.pbsonline/

only_a_teacher.htm

Hirsch, S. (2009). History of Teaching as a Profession. Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://www.ehow.com/

education/social_science_education/teach_history/history_of_teaching_as_a_proffesion.htm