Aztecs favored universal education

All Aztecs went to school? A lesson for Mexico.

An unearthed school shows that universal education got an early start in Mexico. Today, the system lags with the indigenous receiving less schooling than the rest of the population.

By Sara Miller LlanaThe school, built between 1486 and 1502, was a sacred place of study for the children of Aztec nobility.

And though commoners inside the school walls would have been few and far between, the Aztecs of central Mexico played an important role in the world of education.

They are believed to be among the first to offer universal education at a time when other societies reserved study only for the privileged.

"All Aztec children went to school," says Harry Patrinos, the lead education economist at the World Bank. "It all disappeared after the [Spanish] conquest, and it took a long time before the colonies had any education system."Comment:  Darn those socialist hippie Mexicans! Even back then, they were plotting to overthrow the US!

Because universal education => overthrowing the established order of politics, economics, culture, religion, and so forth, you know. In other words, everything conservatives hate and liberals love.

Which is why education and "liberal arts" are synonymous.

For more on the subject, see Educators Protest Tucson Book Ban, Republicans want to "Keep America America," and What Conservatives Consider "Objective History."

Below:  "Archaeologists found Aztec ruins during construction work in 2007. A new exhibition has spurred talk about the current education system." (Courtesy of Centro Cultural de España)