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History of Education

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It is widely viewed that a person’s education begins the day he is born and ends the day he dies. In this sense, the history of education begins with the very first human ever to exist on this earth. Of course, this is not normally where we begin our history of education.

Normally, when we refer to the history of education, we are referring to the history of formal education. A formal education is when a group, society, or an individual sets up a curriculum specifically for the purpose of educating people.

As we consider to study the history of education, though, we find that it is difficult to separate formal education – education as a science – from all of the educational traditions that existed before and still exist today. The art, or science, of teaching is called pedagogy. The very first chair of pedagogy was not founded until the end of the 1770s in Germany.

Surely, though, we cannot say that the history of education begun at this point, so long ago? What about the education that adults of early civilizations passed onto their children? This education ensured the survival of their culture. Before societies were even literate, they had some form of education. Story-telling passed important information down from one generation to the next.

Even back around 3000 and 500 BC, Egypt had a form of schooling – the culture extended their knowledge beyond the basic skills of gathering food, trading, communicating, etc.

For cultures of the West, the history of education really began with and was influenced by religion – priests and monks wanted to promote positive virtues and morals in youths, so they started and maintained school systems. Many of the very first universities in Europe have Catholic roots.

This history of education in Japan also is closely tied to religion. The first schooling was conducted at temples for young persons who wanted to later become priests of Buddhism.

The history of education in China, on the other hand, was not so closely tied to religion. Rather, the history of education in China is tied to classic texts.

India has one of the longest and richest histories of education. India has one of the oldest educational systems on earth – the Gurukul system of education, dedicated to high ideals of physical, mental, and spiritual human development. These schools were traditional Hindu residential schools of learning.

From these small beginnings, the importance of education has risen worldwide. Illiteracy is slowly (very slowly) disappearing, and more and more youth are getting a chance at a good education. Education is highly valued in many cultures today, and education extends fare beyond simply religious education and the food gathering educations of the past.

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