Philosophy of Education in Ancient Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia, similar to Egypt, was known as the “cradle of civilization”. This appellation was possibly affixed to this ancient civilization because of the advancement which was reflected in its writings, education, architecture and religion(s). Just like Egypt, this well developed society stunned it’s counterparts with the ability to construct governments, systems and edifices which still stand as of today. Education, of course, played a very important role in the cultural development of this ancient society. In the following reflection I will be commenting on what strikes me as most important in reading about education in ancient Mesopotamia? And how does the philosophy of education relate to ancient this civilization?

We could safely say that due to possible commercial trading and interaction of both these ancient civilizations (Egypt and Mesopotamia), Mesopotamia may have shared or even adopted certain systems, principles, and values which is parallel to that of its counterpart. In the study of ancient Mesopotamia’s educational development, I find it interesting that the priests of this civilization dominated the intellectual and educational domain found in this culture. It was very clear that their educational programs involved teaching their priests and scribes reading, writing, religion, medicine and other sciences in order to establish a priestly supremacy. Examining this could reflect how important religion and the priestly post were in the core values of this ancient civilization. With most of Mesopotamia educational institutions being temples, it is said that “schools for priests were as numerous as temples” in this ancient empire.

Another interesting study was the various trades and subjects offered in the cradle of this civilization. With a list of curriculums ranging from writing to astrology we see an expansion of knowledge in the midst of this study. Similar to Egypt they offered and practiced homeschooling, apprenticeship and temple institutionalization, but incredibly they had an extended knowledge of other practices. I am sure many scholars can argue that Egypt was as competitively developed, but with trades such as copyists, librarians and teachers we see a dynamic evolution of culture developing in Mesopotamia. Librarians became one of the key vocations, as well as scribes, because books were now being established at perhaps a larger rate or more frequently. We can even see a possible transition from homeschooling to and institutionalized education. Students now had to develop more reading and writing in order to achieve vocational success, which now could be found through scribal book and subjects.

Conclusive to everything I have mentioned about education in Mesopotamia, in the study of the five main Western educational philosophies it may be safe to say that we can find similarities in the adopted philosophical form of education practiced by this ancient empire. Mesopotamia with its strong religious, cultural, and scribal practices may be categorized as an empire that used an essentialism and perennialism system of education. These types of philosophy, again urges that “traditional disciplines” and “teacher centered philosophies” be implemented. The transferring of knowledge, information, vocations and skills from the older generation to the younger generation was vital in the development and success of the students and the enculturation of the empire.