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Education is a common practice throughout the world that is the basis for a childs upbringing. Different cultures teach their children education in many different ways that respond to their respected traditions. We are going to look at the education practices of three different cultures compared to that of the one that I experienced here in the United States. The education practices we will be talking about are the African education, the Aztec education, and the indigenous education. Africa is a large continent consisting of many countries and thousands of different cultures. Although there are many cultures, the educational experience is somewhat the same.
The African educational experience is more of a natural process where a child gradually acquires skill and knowledge over time through oral traditions and life experiences. A traditional African education is divided into seven goals. These goals are to develop a childrens latent physical skills; to develop character; to inculcate respect for elders and those in position of authority; to develop intellectual skills; to acquire specific vocational training and a healthy attitude towards honest labor; to develop a sense of belonging and to participate actively in family and community affairs; and to understand, appreciate, and promote the cultural heritage of the community at large. Individuals that complete these goals will be looked at as adults that are respected and honest.
This type of schooling is more of a life school than a traditional school that I attended when I was young. In the African experience, people learned all the time. There was no certain time that a child would attend a certain school and stay there for the day learning about history or math. Instead, every adult in the community was looked at as a teacher that could have some important lesson that could be shared with a child. The most influential teachers in a childs life were their parents.
Children would play games that imitated the adults as if they were playing grown up. In Africa it was difficult to distinguish between learning and playing when observing a child. As I mentioned before, oral tradition played a major role in the African educational experience. Children would be taught using proverbs, riddles, word games, or arithmetic puzzles.
When playing word games, children would quiz each other about different animals or flowers that would help build each others memory and arithmetic puzzles were mathematical challenges that tested a childs math capabilities. Stories that the elders told about their respected cultures history and rituals was by far the most important education of all. It was important for children to know their culture and rituals and why certain beliefs are what they are as well as the importance of passing them on to their future children. Another major part of the African education, is a childs transformation into adulthood. The age at which this happens varies among the different African cultures but is always done through an initiation ritual.
The transformation to African adulthood was one done socially which is not typical of western cultures where it is more private. The initiation process was seven basic steps, which included the childs separation from the community under adult supervision, instruction in history and folklore about the community, instruction in sexual relations as well as adult duties and responsibilities, and finally circumcision. The only difference between female and male initiations was the physical torture that men endured. This was to physically and mentally prepare them for the new life they were about to embark upon.
The initiation of a child into an adult, however, does not give African people the training or skills to enter the workforce and earn a living as the western education does. Africans would either enter the field of agricultural production, trades, or regular professions such as doctors and priests. However what field the child choose was not made on their own. Children would enter in the trade of which their father worked in and would observe this trade throughout their childhood years. By the time they were teenagers they would have already mastered it. By this time the basic education process was over.
The person, now an adult, begins their adult life by working and starting a family. They will now be the ones that the children will look upon for guidance as well as teachings that are essential to keep their culture alive. Another educational system that differs from that of the western world is that of the Aztecs. The Aztec society flourished in Mexico and was a very developed civilization. Their society was centered on war and was known as a barbaric and brutal society that often killed. The social structure of the Aztecs was based on military rank.
Warfare was considered sacrificial and the means of expanding their empire. The main focus of the Aztecs religion was on human sacrifice. The shedding of blood ensured that the society would continue to thrive. Aztec children were educated in a different manner than that of the previously mentioned Africans as well as the western world. An educated member of the Aztec society must maintain discipline, respect for their elders, knowledge of their gods, fluent speech, and a willingness to die for the continuance of their society. There were two main aspects in the upbringing of a child, informal and formal education.
Children would begin their informal education at age four by performing chores and their responsibilities grew as they got older. Boys would eventually tag along with their father to work, while girls helped their mother around the house. As in the African society, Aztec boys would learn to master the same trade as their father and continue on with that trade throughout their lives. Another form of learning practiced by Aztec children was the use of proverbs and metaphors to teach them of everyday things.
Another major part of this informal education was the toleration of pain and hunger. This was essential in order to prepare these boys to become warriors. A childs formal education began at age twelve, and continues until they were fifteen. Children would attend what is called a cuicacalli, house of song where they were taught about the gods, as well as, songs and dances that were important...
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Research essay sample on Educational History Of Non Western Cultures
