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History | Education | Egypt
Wax Tablet Shows What a 2000-Year-old Homework Looked Like
Homework was one of life’s biggest struggles as a child. “Why do we even get homework when we go to school?” we often asked ourselves. But I guess we weren't alone. Even the student of Ancient Egypt got homework. And their homework was not learning how to mummify a body or do witchcraft, transfigure into a cat or build a pyramid shining in the Sun. It was a little like our own.
Education in Ancient Egypt
It is speculated that education began in the Old Kingdom. Their subjects were not much different from ours. They studied: mathematics, astronomy, geometry, reading, writing, geography, music, sports, manners, medicine, and moral instruction.
Due to few career options and less number of schools, mostly the boys of higher class families received an education.
The young boys would begin their formal education at 7. Their education was dependent on the status of their fathers. The schools were called craft-school, home-school, elite-school depending on the family’s occupation, which the children were expected to maintain.
