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Inca Education

The Inca education start from the moment of birth; it's because the newborn did not sleep with the parents. The baby sleep in a net hanging from the wall, wrap with warm clothing and with an open area around the face. They never take a baby in arms, unless it was necessary; they did not want the baby to get use to be in hold in arms. When the baby needs to be feed, the mother gets her breast close to the mouth of the baby feeding him without holding him in arms.

The next step of the Inca education starts ones the baby can sit by himself. They don't need the net hanging from the wall anymore; now, the baby is place in a hole in the floor with warm clothing around him. The baby stays there until he can walk by himself; next the parents start to teach him how to help the family. They will not have a fix assign responsibility yet; but the teaching goes until the baby became 3 years old.

Ones the kid became 3 years old, the Inca education begin by assigning responsibilities to the kid. The first duties could be grazing animals, helping in the food dehydration and feeding llamas, dogs or guinea pigs. The parents were responsible to follow the psychological growth and development of their children. The parents pay special attention to the obedience, respect for others properties and fusion of the child into the community.

The Inca education provides by the parents goes from 3 years up to 9 years. They progressively assign to the kid more and more responsibilities. It was the period of time where the differences from boys and girls begin. The boys start to learn the secrets of the agriculture, hunting and breeding llamas. The girls start their education in loom weaving and collecting wild eatable vegetables. The Inca Women from the community encourage the young girls to follow their example.

So far, the parents are the only ones providing all necessary Inca education to the child. But ones the kids became 9 years old; the Inca government assigns a duty to the kids. The parents celebrate this moment as the first step in their child independence of the family. The boys were responsible of hunting birds for the feathers and girls were responsible of recollect flowers, insects and minerals for dyeing textiles

At this point of the Inca education, the boys and girls had a different educational path. The girls carry on with their home education becoming experts making textiles, cooking and dehydration of food. The boys, on the other hand start with physical competitions within them, to test their strength and speed. The competitions of swimming, running and jumping were common. They need the competitions to get stronger because when they will be 16 years old, they must go to the compulsory military service.

The boys end their childhood Inca education at 14 years old. The girls end it when they had their first menstruation. In both cases, the community celebrates the moment with family ceremonies. It was consider the childhood end and the adulthood beginning. During the ceremony the boys and girls receive their final name. The ceremony was the end of the boy's physical training and the young girls became eligible for marriage. But they never got marry so young.

When they become 20 years old, the royal Inca education begin. They send men to the Yachayhuasi or house of the knowledge and they send the chosen women to the Acllahuasis. For men it was four years of education. The first year they teach language, the second year religion and the third and fourth year they learn how to use the Quipu. The Quipu was use as calculator and as an unusual way to record events. Only the royal family, authority's families and self-earned noble families, had access to this high education.

The Inca education was strict and severe; occasionally when a child make something wrong, they were punish with a pinch in the lobe of the ear. We assume it was a painful punishment because everyone had long nails. If the child commits a severe infraction; the child and parents suffer the same punishment. Because the Inca law make the parents full responsible of the actions of their kids.