Egyptian School
An Egyptian scribe, from the Louvre
There were schools in ancient Egypt, but hardly anyone went to them. Girls weren't allowed to go to school at all. Whatever they learned, they had to learn at home from their mother or father or from a private tutor (usually a slave) who lived in their house. Very few girls could read or write, and only the richest ones.
Most boys didn't go to school either, but a few boys from richer families went to a special school to train boys to be scribes. A scribe was someone who could read and write, and because not very many people could read or write hieroglyphics (which was much harder than our alphabet writing), scribes always found good jobs keeping people's records for them. They worked like modern lawyers or accountants, helping richer men keep track of their businesses and contracts. So they also had to be good at math. If you were going to be a scribe, you started school at four and went to school until you were about fifteen.
Of course kids learned many things, even though most of them didn't go to school. Girls learned how to take care of babies, and how to spin, and how to weed the fields, and how to take care of goats and cows, and how to harvest grain. Boys learned how to plow and plant fields, and how to irrigate, and how to make tools. Some boys learned how to be butchers or shoemakers or weavers or many other jobs like that.
Egyptian families
Egyptian schools
Egyptian slavery
To find out more about Egyptian schools, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
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