Scribes

          Only boys or men went to school, while the girls and women stayed home to do simple house chores. A scribe was someone who had been to school to learned how to read and write hieroglyphics. The schooling to be a scribe would begin at the age of 4 and go to age 16. Most people didn’t go to scribe school because they couldn’t afford it. When a boy first started scribe school, they were not allowed to use papyrus; they had to use broken pieces of pots (ostraca). A scribe’s work was one of the most honored jobs. Everyone in the villages depended on the scribe- from small farmers to the pharaoh.

After the boy finished school as a fully trained scribe, they went either to an advanced school, or straight to a job. If they were good enough, they might even become the pharaoh’s minister. If a scribe became a pharaoh’s personal scribe, they were in charge of counting their gold rings. The pharaoh’s scribe was in charge of writing in the pharaoh’s tomb. The scribes were very highly paid, and they didn’t have to pay taxes. A scribe would also travel around on behalf of the government to record information on the progress of building and the harvest.

They used thin reed stems to write. They wrote on paper (papyrus), which was made out of reeds. When they wrote, they brushed the ink on the papyrus and wood.