Page:Pedagogía Tolteca.djvu/22

 example in our mechanized culture. Parents supervised the training of boys and mothers instructed girls. Up to six years old they listened to frequent and repeated homilies and advice, learned the use of household implements and did domestic work. Children received work as soon as they walked and an infant was made to carry small wooden loads; over time the weight increased and had more housework chores, carrying water and firewood, keeping fire and sweeping. The home education was divided according to gender: the father taught the son duties, while the mother instructed girls in corn milling, to make tortillas and weaving clothes fabric. Aztec children were constantly badgered with lengthy speeches about their fate and their moral and ethical duties." Max Shein, The Pre-Columbian Child. México. 1986. Respect for parents and grandparents, as well as to older siblings, the relationship with extended family, that is, uncles, aunts, political relatives, but above all, with godparents, who had at various childhood and youth stages, a "commitment" with the education of the Godson, was fundamental in the educational development of the child.