Page:Pedagogía Tolteca.djvu/41

 In toltec calmecac on the other hand, prepared those who would be leaders, administrators, priests and teachers. The instruction was much higher and profound. The sense of historical and social responsibility was exalted in students, the path was higher education. As in all societies, the Anahuac had a philosophical and religious knowledge, reserved for the ruling elite. Religion deepened into theology, mathematics into geometry and calculus, astrology in astronomy, and so on, in the knowledge field. So that the Anahuac educational metaphor of forming "own faces and real hearts", achieved a genuine sense and was the community expression of the supreme aspiration. The supreme ideal of the Anahuac civilization was profoundly and secretively studied in the calmecac.

So that if the telpochcalli was closer to a boarding school in our times; the calmecac was very similar to a monastery, where self-control was promoted, so life was more self-disciplined and less institutional demand. Young people studying at the calmecac, men and women, had a conscious commitment to polish and become the best of themselves, to serve with greater responsibility and effectiveness to their community and the supreme divinity.

The calmecac was consecrated to Quetzalcoatl, philosophically symbolizing the incarnation "of equilibrium", between the spirit represented by the quetzal, and matter, by the cóatl or snake. But that in the historical-religious aspect was the symbol of wisdom and education. Indeed, Quetzalcoatl taught human beings of the Fifth Sun the prodigy of arts and sciences, hence was the symbol of the desired human perfection.

Unlike the telpochcallis, which existed in each calpulli, and in a town there could be several calpullis, in general, only had one calmecac in each medium or large size town, hence they were regional and were located in the center of the city, next to government buildings. The studies degree level required as a result