History: Educations

Education in China
Confucius was not the first teacher in China, but he did set up the format of teaching in early China. Moreover, the education system and ethics today are based on his teaching format.
Confucius, known as the “Master Philosopher Kong” in China in the memory of his importance contribution towards to education, lived in Lu country in 551- 479 B.C.E. “Confucius’ thoughts were fundamentally moral, ethical, and political in character. His thoughts were also thoroughly practical: Confucius did not address philosophical or religious questions, but focused instead on the proper ordering of human relationships” (Benyley, 2010, 105). He believes everyone had the right to pursue education; therefore, his teaching “has an important role to play in China from time to time (Mok, 2005, 58)”.
Confucius had a large class. He was not the ordinary teacher at the time that was hired by wealthy families and lived them to teach their children. Confucius was a free teacher who taught the public without asking for any money. People at the time would sit in a circle around him and listen to his teaching. The teaching was mainly composed of philosophy. He also taught people how to recognize simple words as the majority of the people could not read at the time.
There are many legends of Confucius written by his students. One of the stories about him described his open-mindedness and how he believed children had the right to learn. One day he was talking about the philosophy to people and teaching people how to be ethical. While people were listening to his teaching, there were three children that wanted to join the group to learn. The people refused the children and said the children were too young to understand the greatness of education. Confucius heard what the people told the children, and told the people everyone was equal and the children were more than welcome to stay and listen to him because he believed that the children are the future of the country. The country would improve only if the children were being treated well and being educated. Ever since, more and more young adults and children would go to Confucius to learn from him.
Another story was admiring his virtue that he wanted to be a good person instead of a rich person. Since at the time, teachers are rich as their employers were only rich people. The story started with three of his students arguing with each other. One student said he was smart enough that he could rule a big country with order. Another student said he could rule a medium sized country and let it be a rich country. The third student said he could only be the secretary and let the country be well maintained. Then they were asking Confucius if their thoughts were decent. Confucius, instead of answering their question and give comments, said that he himself would not want to rule the country or be a governor, and instead he wanted to serve people in need and teach the other people without asking them to repay. Then the students were speechless. They were ashamed that they wanted to pursue the monetary instead of pursuing the real virtue of human spirit.
People have great respect for teachers. . During the Waring Period of China, “dynamics of revolution, resistance, and reform were played out with regional variations throughout village China (Friedman, 2005, 5)”, many people have lost their parents in the family, so they will go to the teacher for help. Confucius was not a rich person, in fact, he was very poor, therefore, people donated food to him. Therefore, Confucius was also was like a parent figure for the people. The role of teacher since then was established. In China today, teachers still have great respect from people, and they served as a parent to their students.

 
Education in Japan
Chinese traditions not only influenced Japanese political and cultural development, but also education system and logic. According to Bentley, “The imperial house established a court modeled on that of the Tang, instituted a Chinese-style bureaucracy, implemented an equal-field system, provided official support for Confucianism and Buddhism, and in the year 710 moved to a new capital city at Nara that was a replica of the Tang capital at Chang’an (Bentley, 2010, 238)” Another example, Japanese was using Chinese characters as the official language. Even today, the Japanese characters were the ones developed from Chinese characters.
There are many legends about how the Chinese culture influence originated in Japan. One of the stories took place during the Tang period of China. There was a monk who was being punished and being shipped out from China. When he arrived in Japan his eyes weren’t able to see from the injury from the sea. The Japanese people saved him and in return he taught the people how to read and the philosophy of Buddha. After ten years, he rethought and understood more philosophy. He returned to China and the temple was happy to see him since he did not die on the sea, and moreover, he knew more things and understood the Buddha’s philosophy deeper than other monks. At the time, if one was being punished and did not die from the punishment, people believe it was the god’s decision for him to live and bring good news from Him. So this monk was then being treated with great respect. However, he did not forget the Japanese people. He then decided to return to Japan and to teach more things, such as language and literature as well as the Buddha philosophy.
During the early Japanese culture, children from rich families were educated. For the imperial family, the women were educated to help express themselves to men in order to be married. However, some women in the imperial family used education as a way to entertain; sometimes they wrote things that later became important literatures for the Japanese culture. One example was the famous Japanese literature work, The Tale of Genji. In the story, an attractive male, as described in the book that “he had grown up to be a child of unrivalled beauty and the Emperor was delighted with him (Waley, 1973, 15)”, from the imperial family was in love with a girl, but she was married to his father, the Emperor. His love towards her did not change over time. He had relationships with many women in the imperial family as well with the daughters of the governors. Then one day he met with a little girl in the temple, and learned that she was the relative of his loved step mother. He then took care of this little girl and to raise her to be his wife. However, by the end, she ran away from his best friend, who was also his deceased wife’s brother. The story is very complex, but the emotional descriptions and the mental struggles are very detailed and alive. Although the story and the people in the story were not real, scholars believe the author was writing the story based on a true story.
After all, the main aims for the education in the acient Japan was to “teach filial piety, friendship, benevolence, sincerity, propriety, respect, loyalty, courage, and modesty (Khan, 1997 ,75)

 
Education in India
India, as one of the largest country in todays world, has a rich cultural background. “The ancient Indian civilization flourished as a sophisticated and advanced society about 5000 years ago (Gupta, 2007, 67)”.The earliest written language in India is known as Veda. “Ancient texts such as the Veda were written in India using the Vedic language, an archaic form of Sanskrit, sometimes between 1500 and 2000 B.C. These texts have been considered by scholars from all over the world as being rich sources of philosophy, spiritual insights, and treatises on subjects such as medicine, science, math, astronomy, and so forth (Avinashilingam, 1960, 77)” The Vedic philosophy has directly informed education in India as well as the Buddhism and Hinduism philosophies.
The education in India in the early century was mainly for rich and noble families. “In Ancient India, formal schooling for children was said to have begun only at the age of seven or eight years (Altekar, 1965, 13)”. The people, specifically children, learned from a private tutor called a guru. Some other members of the community had a possibility to receive the education, but it was highly unlikely.
The kind of education that people received was according to their social level and what work tasks they would perform. The priest class people learned about religion, philosophy, language and literature. The warrior class people learned how to fight and all the skills for warfare. The business class people learned the knowledge of trading and mathematics. The lower class did not usually have the opportunity to receive any education at all. While the education was given according to their social class, there was a universal system that was open to people that had a passion and who could afford the tuition. The institution usually taught the student in certain practical fields such as medicine, logic, grammar, metaphysics, arts, and crafts. The advanced knowledge in such fields attracted large number of people to study and some were even from foreign countries.
Another educational characteristic was that the majority of the females were not educated. In tradition, Indian women were perceived as weak and helpless, therefore, not only did they lose the opportunity to receive education, they also were being looked down on from a social perspective. The rich women and the women in imperial family had the right to be educated, but most of them did not receive the same amount of education as men. Moreover, the education women receive was not the same as men; the education for women was household care.
The education received by people not only differed according to their social class, but also according to the region. The people that lived in a larger city received a better and more detailed education than the people who live in small village. The standard of education was not yet formed in the ancient India. Moreover, universities were closed because they were not able to establish the standardized education.
The social class restrictions certainly played a big role in education system in India. The education also prevented the people to escape from their social class to higher class. Therefore, it was very difficult for one to escape from the class were born into and to pursue a better live.

 
Education in England
“The educational history of England started since the period of Roman Empire (Shukla, 1998, 66)”. The educational history of England started in the period of the Roman Empire. At the time, people were learning mainly languages and logics. Children from rich families would attend school and sometimes their servants would also attend school to take care of their little masters. Males were more welcomed in school, while only few girls were receiving education. The education for males was mainly to prepare them for success in their later occupation. Moreover, some children were receiving special education for becoming the governor of the state. Females who received education often not only symbolized evidence of family wealth, but also showed the ability the girl had to take care of her future family and her children. Moreover, boys would stay in school to learn geography and history, while girls would stop going to school and start to learn household care from her mother.
Most of the education rich children receive in the school was different than the education received by the common people. The rich children received the knowledge of philosophy, mathematics, music, geography, and sometimes the special skills according to the father’s position in government. For the common people, education often meant pre-training for a particular job; such as artisans, who had to be trained for at least seven years before they could be independent from their teachers. Lower class people such as laborers did not have much opportunity to receive education as the wealthy, but they would learn skills for them to maintain their occupation. Slaves at the time would go with their masters, sometimes they would be waiting near by the classroom or sometimes they would be allowed to stay in the classroom while their masters were receiving education.
During the middle ages, education became more demanding as the society became more completed. Many people would attend schools now known as Cathedral school to receive education. Education at the time was mainly focused on liberal arts, especially literature and philosophy. “ Students read the Bible and the writings of the church fathers, as well as classical Latin literature and the few works of Plato and Aristotle that were available in Latin translation. Some cathedral schools also offered advanced instruction in Law, medicine, and theology (Bently, 2010, 313)”.
The two well known universities in the early era were the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge. The University of Oxford is located in Oxford, and is one of the oldest universities in the world. The university experienced a great population growth when Henry II banned students from attending the University of Paris. The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge are often referred as Oxbridge as they shared many similarities since 1209. “The schools and classes are culturally mixed and where student have access to a range of knowledge (Adams, 2007, 170)”.
 
Works Cited
Adams, Leah D. and Anna Kirova. Global Migration and Education. Schools, Children, and Families. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007.
Altekar, A. S. Education in Ancient India. Varanasi: Nand Kishore & Brothers, 1965.
Avinashilingam, T. S. Gandhiji's Experiments in Education. Ministry of Education, Government of India, 1960.
Bentley, Jerry H., Herbert F. Ziegler and Heather E. Streets-Salter. Traditions & Encounters. second. Vol. I: to 1500. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010.
Friedman, Edward, Paul G. Pickowicz and Mark Selden. Revolution, Resistance, and Reform in Village China. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005.
Gupta, Amita. Going to School in South Asia. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007.
Khan, Yoshimitsu. Japanese Moral Education Past and Present. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997.
Mok, Ka-ho and Richard James. Globalization and Higher Education in East Asia. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2005.
Murasaki, Lady. The tale of Genji. Trans. Arthur Waley. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1935.
Shukla, Sureshchandra and Rekha Kaul. Education, Development and Underdevelopment. London: Sage, 1998.