Apprenticeship in Comparison

Education and training has always been fundamental in the development of skill and proficiency. Dating back as early as 4000 B.C., in Babylon, we find early systems of apprenticeship that gave young trainees the opportunity to develop and master a skill or trade. In the following reflection I will be comparing apprenticeship today with apprenticeship in the classic ancient civilizations.

For thousands of year’s people, societies, tools, and vocations have changed. “Change” has been considered the essential theme of the apprenticeship philosophy. While early civilizations learned how to develop tools and other crafts, it became necessary to develop learning systems in order to replicate and learn how to use and develop these tools. This replication gave rise to the apprenticeship system in the ancient world. It was vital for the proficiency of skill to be achieved in order that the early civilization may have a chance in developing its economy and wealth. Without these apprenticeship systems all existing civilizations were doomed for failure and even stagnicity. With the need and development for instruction and learning, production increased and so did knowledge. This knowledge gave way to new techniques of training and new forms of vocational interests. In all, we see through the lens of time, that the thirst for knowledge and the need to spread that knowledge through training and education was vital for that civilizations success.

Even though “change” may have been considered the essential theme that governs the development of the apprenticeship process, there still remain some fundamental principles that barricade the core values of apprenticeship. Apprenticeship reflects status; in the ancient and modern world those who achieved success were those who demonstrated mastery in their skill or vocation. This “mastery” process in many instances meant sacrifice, years, discipline, teaching, instruction, and even humility. In attaining these virtues an apprentice was rewarded with security, vocation, and respect. Not attaining these virtues may have promised you hardship, lower class status, and even slavery in many instances. For it has been said “a journeyman or master who had his tools and had his skills was worthy of sitting with the King.”

In our modern society much has not changed in the process of attaining instruction and education. For we as the populace still see large edifices, institutions, and systems which still govern the learning principles. Our techniques may be more advanced or widely easier to attain, but the course is still the same. Training, education, apprenticeship, homeschooling, and even in some cases “temple” learning still exists. “Masters” and “school fathers” are equivalent of today’s instructors and teachers. All of these characteristics of apprenticeship reflect the evolving stages of such a needed system. We are reminded in our society today that without demonstrating proficiency and aptitude we are promised curb and “confinement”.