Initial Reflections on Teaching Ancient Egypt

Today was my first day observing a sixth grade ancient civilizations class In San Leandro, just south of Oakland.  As part of my MA in social studies education, I’ll be collaborating with the teacher in building the theme “oppression and resistance” into the units on ancient India, China , and Greece.  I’ll be doing a lot of research in those areas and mapping out what I find here…

The first thing I noticed in the classroom was simply how good I felt.  I really miss being around kids, and thought to myself, “what a wonderful way to spend the day… I would be so happy to spend my days with these kids.”  I thought of teachers I know who would say to me, “sure, you say that now, but just wait!”  I can’t relate to that sentiment.  I miss being in the classroom. 

The teacher began the class by asking a student what the big question this week was, and the student said, “Who was Queen Hatshepsut and why was she important?”  The teacher asked a few other students the same question and I imagine the big question sunk in.  Hatshepsut was a fascinating ruler, and I was interested to see how she was presented, but I didn’t get the chance – the structure of the class seems to be that of reading through the chapter first, and then spending the rest of the week doing lessons based on the chapter.   

The observation raised a barrage of thoughts: as the class - over the course of 20 minutes and perhaps five pages – moved from the Middle to the New Kingdom, read about the invasion of the Hyksos, conflicts with the Hittites, the Great Sphinx, and sailing technology, I inevitably found myself with dozens of questions and thoughts about how to help students really dig into this fascinating material…

Here are a few of my off-the-cuff thoughts:  as we move from the Middle to New Kingdom, what are the cultural shifts occurring?  It’s not as if the Hyksos invade the Middle Kingdom, rule for a few generations, and then Egypt just goes back to the way things were.  It would be interesting to explore cultural changes brought about by invasion, and to explore the subsequent response by Egypt to become an imperial power in the Levant in order to keep future invasions at bay.  Interesting moral questions could be explored, such as “Was Egypt justified in conquering the Levant in order to protect itself?  Do you think a country can keep itself safe by conquering another country?”  These questions have the added benefit of providing an opportunity to bring in contemporary events for comparison. 

How could we explore the sphinx?  I think this would be an opportunity to describe how sometimes we know about a culture, such as the ancient Egyptians, not through their own sources, but the sources of another culture.  "Sphinx" is a Greek name and describes a Greek mythical creature, not an Egyptian one.  It would be interesting to explore why we, today, use that word, and not “Abu al Hul,” or “the Terrifying One,” as it is known to Egyptian Arabs today.  What would a sixth grade lesson on that look like? 

During the one minute spent looking at a picture of an Egyptian ship, I found myself wanting to create an activity involving geography: why did Egyptians design the ship that way?  How was it used?  How would it compare to other ships, such as Greek or Chinese?  The ship could be an opportunity to work with themes involving trade, the influence of technology on culture, or cross-cultural sharing and adaptation of technology.    

As the class talked about Hatshepsut, a student asked: “Did they dig up her grave”?  And I found myself wanting to create a lesson on the ethics of digging up graves for contemporary knowledge: is it ok?  Sometimes ok?  When is it ok?  Should we continue to respect the beliefs and wishes of people long dead, or does the pursuit of knowledge trump those wishes?  It would interesting to bring in different perspectives on this for students to read: perhaps I could find two modern Egyptian sources arguing for and against.  We could even compare it to contemporary debates on Native American repatriation. 

My biggest questions involved religion.  How do we explore religions in a really humanizing way?  In a society deeply prejudiced against – or at least misunderstanding of – polytheism, how do we as teachers help students understand polytheism in a sophisticated light?  How do we help students make sense of the fact that human beings have essentially always lived in a world permeated with gods, rituals, and symbols?  In my fantasy world, I would read through Jan Assman’s book The Search for God inAncient Egypt with a fellow passionate teacher with a scholarly bent, and adapt the main themes into a short sixth grade lesson.  (Assman presents Egyptian polytheism as a highly developed theological and philosophical system.)

My favorite part of the class dealt directly with the oppression and resistance theme we’ll be working on: a clip from the animated movie “Antz.”  In the movie, a few grasshoppers force all the ants to grow their food and do all their work.  After reviewing the social hierarchy of ancient Egypt, students watched a clip in which the ants realize their collective power, and take their resources for themselves.  The teacher asked her students who the grasshoppers would have been in ancient Egypt, and of course they said the pharaoh.  She then asked something like, “who really had the power”?  And of course, they said the workers. 

So we have a start, but it doesn’t involve critical thinking yet, and only a tiny bit of historical awareness about hierarchy.  Students should be given readings on how the peasants viewed the hierarchical system they participated in, how they resisted r adapted to it, how those in power maintained the hierarchy, etc.  Toby Wilkinson’s book, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, details these mechanisms of power. 

I’m sure there are ways to help sixth graders think about subjects such as culture and technology, religion, and oppression and resistance in developmentally sophisticated ways.  I look forward to exploring how to do that.