Page:Historia Verdadera del Mexico profundo.djvu/84

 10. EDUCATION.

Education represented one of the most important and solid pillars of the Anahuac civilization. The millennial civilizing work that evolved from generation to generation would not have been possible without an excellent education system, which not only maintained the ruling foundations of the original project, but also inculcated in the children's children, knowledge, principles, values and the abstract civilization objective, consistently over several thousand years. The ancient Mexico education was compulsory and free.

"Nothing I have admired more, worthy of praise, than the care and order to raise their children by the Mexicans. Because in good understanding that raising and institutionalizing childhood and youth, lies all the good hopes of the Republic, they gave as a gift and freedom to their children which are two parts of that age and make them busy in honest and helpful exercises." (Joseph Acosta. 1962)

Education in ancient Mexico was one of the Anahuac civilization pillars and family its genesis. Indeed, the education given in the nuclear family was the deep foundation of these pillars. Children and young people were exposed to a moral and ethical base through ancient principles and values that sought to train them in the attitudes and values of life, the world, family, work, society, the divine and sacred.

The father and mother, grandparents, uncles and family in general, lovingly nourished their children in the large family circle. It is for this reason that the terms "cencalli and cenyeliztli" fully expressed the importance of the family and education. Cencalli literally means in Nahuatl language: "the whole house or all those who live in it". There is an indivisible duality in the culture of yesterday and today of the Mexican family and education. Cenyeliztli means: "status or nature of those who live entirely and jointly in a house". ____________________