Even in ancient times , the concept of going to school was still prevalent throughout the societies of the past . In
ancient Egypt , upper-class school children would attend either priest or scribe school to become one of these officials . They would spend most of their youth studying , normally from the age of 5-16 , and at age 17 they could attend a temple college . Scribes were incredibly important to the Egyptians as they kept records of everything , but priests were even more important . Their whole society was centered around religion , so the Egyptians took great pride in providing education to future priests .
In a very similar fashion to the Egyptians , the Mesopotamians focused on
educating priests and scribes . Not only did they teach the
standard topics at the time ( religion , writing , reading , etc .), but they also educated students on astrology , law , and medicine . Mesopotamian
teaching styles are very reminiscent of those that we use today : oral repetition , memorization , copying models , and individual instruction . The value that this civilization placed on education can be seen by the fact that there were practically as many temple colleges as actual temples .