So what has changed in 6000 years?

[coriolis]

Will Durant, writing in Our Oriental Heritage, 1935, Page 171, on disciplining Egyptian youth:

Discipline was vigorous, and based upon the simplest principles. "The youth has a back," says a euphemistic manuscript, "and attends when he is beaten,. . . for the ears of the young are placed on the back." A pupil writes to his former teacher: "Thou didst beat my back, and thy instructions went into my ear." That this animal-training did not always succeed appears from a papyrus in which a teacher laments that his former pupils love books much less than beer.

[Cookiely]

A teacher took a buggy whip to my great uncle Sandy Allen and when he went home and his father saw his bloody back, he went to the school house with a bull whip and beat the teacher. The teacher decided to move and was gone the next day. True Story.

[coriolis]

That's a good story Cookiely. Yikes!


After reading that again, I guess that I need to clarify: The point is that even in ancient Egypt, the kids preferred to drink beer than do their studies. I wonder if they had fraternities too?

[kevin]

Will Durant is one of my favorite historians of all time. A real genius, a nice compassionate man, who had a wonderful wife/collaborator.

Everyone who loves history or wants to understand the world should read the Story of Civilization series, even if it takes many years to finish.

[breeze]

That's a good story Cookiely. Yikes!


After reading that again, I guess that I need to clarify: The point is that even in ancient Egypt, the kids preferred to drink beer than do their studies. I wonder if they had fraternities too?

Crikies - does modern times sound anywhere close to ancient
Egypt?

I'm aghast at the thought...

[kevin]

People stay the same, only their mode of organization changes.

[coriolis]

Hey, I can walk like an Egyptian.

[george_r_1961]

Hey, I can walk like an Egyptian.

Been to see the Bangles of few times there Ed????

[coriolis]

Haven't seen 'em in person, heard 'em enough.

[bob rulz]

It couldn't have been 6,000 years ago...writing wasn't invented until 5,000 years ago. And back in those days what, exactly, do you think there was besides work? There were no books to read back then, no school to attend...nothing.

[coriolis]

I was going to wait till I got home tonight to double check that, but I feel compelled to respond now. Would it suffice to say that that quote is probably attributable to a later date? I recall that the earliest traces of neolithic civilization along the Nile go back way more than 6000 years. I believe that 4000 BC is generally agreed as the "beginning" of the Old Kingdom, during which the pyramids were built. So in order to have the level of organization necessary to build the pyramids, there would have been plenty to do. I also recall that the earliest heiroglyphics were in use by that time, as well as the math and geometry needed for constructing the pyramids. I would suppose that even 6000 years ago there were smart alecks who felt a need to quibble about things.