(A documentary/editorial on the subject thereof, not to be considered authoritative.)

According to a little research I’ve done, both with Uncle Google and in a tall book I own called Adams Syn Chronological Chart or Map of History, the first known education system started about 800 years after this world was created.

I guess I would have assumed that school and the knowledge that comes with it was handed down at the time of creation. 

But not so. 

It had to be discovered and learned.

The first school, so they say, was located in what is present day Iraq.

For interest sake—

The first school was very basic.  Numbers hadn’t been figured out yet, so it was mostly a school that offered ethical concepts and memorization of biblical and historical things.

Here is a hypothesis—

101 years after the flood, the building on the tower of Babel ended because of the confusion of tongues that God caused to fall upon mankind and the people were dispersed.  As was noted earlier, schools taught very basic things in those days. 

Peleg was born right at the time the people were dispersed.  We don’t know anything more about him other than that he is a history marker of sorts for, “In his days was the earth divided.”  If you wish to verify this fact, you’ll also find it in Genises 10:25 and later in I Chronicles 1:19.

The thought has been advanced in the scientific community that before this happened, the earth tilted at around 10 degrees instead of the 23 or so degrees it does today.  This would have made for a much broader Tropical band where folks could spread and live easier than today. 

Before the earth was divided, in Peleg’s days, it would have been easily possible to reach the Americas by land travel. 

Then the earth was divided, and besides being divided, it changed the balance point and the earth tilted to 23 degrees. 

This division of earth would have left the Americas marooned from the rest of the world and any new concepts of the basics of education.  Thus, it seems to make sense why the Indians were discovered with a very basic knowledge of education, being rather barbaric instead.  

If you look at a world map, the division of the earth left all of Asia and Europe a connected land mass. 

— End of hypothesis

After the flood, and the dispersal of humankind, each geological place developed their own systems, all of which fell back on the original platforms of thought developed in the Mesopotamian beginnings.

China developed its school that was also closely related their mythical beliefs, much of which stayed the same for several thousands of years.  It is thought they became somewhat familiar and able to predict astronomical events as early as 2155 B.C., or approximately 300 years after the tower of Babel was constructed.

Approximately 450 years after the tower of Babel dispersal all of Asia and Europe had been visited and colonies established in Africa, Spain, Ireland, Britian, Denmark, and Scottland. 

People were living in these places and developing their own history and education before Abraham was born, or some 450 years before Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt.

India held the Verda’s, or textbooks that taught History, Philosophy, and Poetry, and the Sans script style of writing as early as 2000 B.C., or about the same time Abraham was departing for the land of Ur of the Chaldees.

Later, when the Ten Commandments were handed down to Moses, school expanded to include moral code and general hygiene.

The Chess game, which teaches strategy and forward thinking was devised around 680 B.C., by the Palamedes, during the same time Jeremiah was prophesying his lamentations.

The figures, made to work for mankind, came along around 560 B.C., or the same time Nebuchadnezzar was king.  This was the time when the 47^th problem was solved and out of that man got the multiplication tables, sine and cosine, or Pythagorean rule.

During much the same period, the Greeks founded what they called the four schools of science—Criticism, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Medicine.  A public library was instituted during this time to aid in learning.

This long line of history in education then, from about 800 years after the world was created until the time Christ was born, and which spans roughly 3,200 years still provides the basis for a lot of what is taught in our schools today.

You could almost say school is stamped in our DNA.

Any advancement in thought by mankind in the succeeding years has only been possible because its basics were couched in these original schools of thought.

Consider—

How could Einstein have developed the theory of relativity without the multiplication tables?

How could flight have been achieved without the basics of Science?

Computer programming, in its most basic form, consists of a simple string of 1’s and 0’s in a specific order.

Wars won or lost have been hinged upon how well those ordering them were able to anticipate the opposite side’s next move and calculation as to whether they have enough supply to carry their plan through.

Perhaps medicine embodies these schools of thought more than some; how lost would its surgeries be without knowing the number of units of blood, theory of circulation, and atomic behavior. 

And what about space travel?  Extremely precise measurements coupled timing make for a successful voyage, using known aspects of the universe as an aid to launch and land a man or machine robotically hundreds of thousands of miles away on the moon, or, even farther, millions of miles away on the red dusty planet we call Mars.

*****  

Has the general principal of school changed much since those bygone years?

Pertaining to the basics, no.

Pertaining to how the basics are learned, yes.

Obviously, modernization has played a large role in how the basics are learned.

One thing shouldn’t change, however.

But I’m pretty sure it has.

I gather that it has from a spell the word game I play on my phone.

The basics haven’t changed at all. 

Words are still spelled the same way, after all.

But this game has ‘study aids.’

These aids come in the form of points given to use against a free hint or hints, depending on how many points I’m awarded.

The only thing I need to do to get points awarded is open the game every day.

I don’t have to do any spelling whatsoever. 

If I skip opening the game for a day, I am penalized and don’t get as many points for a few days.

So, what is the game about? 

Spelling a word correctly?

Or a brief adrenaline rush as I estimate how many points I’ll get as I see the treasure chest flash with anticipation?

There are a lot of study aids that aren’t aids at all.

There are a lot of short cuts to the answer that don’t give knowledge at all.

In the end, the basics are learned the same way they always have been.

By applying ourselves and doing our best at discovering them, just like all the folks in the last several thousand years have done. 

Written in Red Beard, in the air between Denver and Sioux Falls, The Source, JJ’s, Cottonwood, and home.