If you happened to be a teenager in one of the Central Mexico’s prominent altepetls/city-states such as Tenochtitlan, the famous island-capital of the Mexica Aztecs, or their partners of the mainland, Texcoco or Tlacopan, you would be excused from counting on enjoying your life free of schooling.

Unlike most of their contemporary world beyond the oceans, Central Mexico had very strict ideas concerning state education for every youth in each city, if not in smaller towns and villages. Not only various schools, or what we would probably consider today as ‘highschool’, were available and ready to make the youths between the ages 14 and 18 work hard, expanding their knowledge and in the way the state had seen fit, but one’s attendance at such institutions of education was mandatory, not a voluntary decision of a youth or a parent to make.

Tenochtitlan, being one of the largest Mesoamerican cities of the 15th century – one of the largest urban centers for their times worldwide as well – had two types of schools. Divided into twelve large calpulli-districts, the city was reported to provide a school per-district, for local teens to attend upon reaching their 15th year of life. Until then it was the parents’ responsibility to teach the child basic manners and crafts, but from the youth’s mid-teens the state was taking over.

The numerous district schools were called telpochcalli – a house/calli of youth/telpochtli – and, like stated above, they catered for youths between ages of 15 and 18, teaching crafts and martial skills along with instructions in basic manners expected from a future good citizen and certain aspects of ceremonial life. No sources claim that those more ‘common’ youths were taught reading and writing, or mathematics and science, but some references suggests that they might have been educated at basic reading of calendar and do basic math in order to run their future workshops and other small businesses.

The telpochcalli pupils were required to sleep in school, after attending midnight ceremonies, but they were free to visit their homes during afternoons unless punished to stay and work due to various transgressions. As a rule, they were required to contribute to public works by occasionally participating in those on a voluntary basis.

The training was done by veteran warriors yaotequihuahqueh and trainers achcacauhtin, although noble veterans pipiltin also participated in the general education in school, teaching their students to handle weapons, shoot arrow, throw dart with the help of atlatl, hold shield, or handle a sword. When an instructing warrior went to war, he would choose a youth to take along in order to carry his supplies and weaponry – a great honor to the youth and a great chance to advance. While accompanied the veterans in the battle, the youths learned great deal and were supposed to lose the fear of a battle.

The students were prohibited from drinking alcoholic beverages under the pain of punishment – public beating, even though the transgressing noble youths were punished in private. A marriage was also prohibited while being a pupil in school, but the students were allowed to have mistresses.

Generally, their lives seemed to be rewarding, offering opportunities to those who were ready to invest in their studies or displayed higher abilities and gifts. Outstandingly talented youths could have hoped to be recommended for transfer to calmecac, the noble school, the only one in the entire city, a very exclusive establishment.

Located in the heart of Tenochtitlan’s ceremonial center, surrounding the city’s most magnificent temples, royal palace, ball court, Great Pyramid and so on, the exclusive calmecac catered to nobility and royal children, preparing the next generation of ruling class – governors, judges, leading warriors, priests, tribute collectors and scribes, artists of higher order, scientists and so on. Gifted commoners sent from various telpochcalli were examined and if found fit admitted into this special institution, then made to work hard acquiring higher education.

The children of the nobility were reported to be admitted to calmecac earlier than their commoner telpochcalli peers. Between the ages of 12 to 14 minor nobility offsprings would be sent to pursue their formal education, with the royal family children starting their school lives as early as seven or eight years old.

Like telpochcalli students, calmecac pupils were sleeping in school, allowed to visit their families through certain afternoon hours, required to return for evening or midnight rites. Here the study was more vigorous and demanding: mathematics, history, astronomy, extensive reading and comprehending of written material, religious and otherwise, calendars, history books, maps, traders’ accounts.

It wasn’t easy to read or write in original Nahuatl that was composed of glyphs rather than letters or characters. It demanded special training which calmecac students were enjoying, or suffering depending on the point of view, on a daily basis. Most students of telpochcalli schools did not train to read beyond basics, even though traders certainly used plenty of reading and writing materials, and so did tribute collectors and probably other commoners.

Yet, the nobility was expected to read properly whatever their occupation was. So it is excusable to assume that the noble children with no special talents might have had it tougher than their fellow telpochcalli contemporaries. On the other hand, the calmecac students were not reported to participate in manual labor of public works, even though, like other school youth, they made their daily trips to the mainland in order to bring firewood and other required necessities.

Also even the calmecac highborn youths were expected to clean their classes and sleeping halls, and even cook for themselves, or so some sources state. According to various codices, Tenochtitlan schools made sure no install measure of humbleness in all students and future full time citizens of the great city.

So Tenochtitlan youth were required to attend public schools, every source agree on that, even if they don’t agree on details. But what about the girls?

Some sources state that most girls learned from their mothers, being their sole responsibility; like boys were the responsibility of their fathers until the age of the mandatory schooling. Yet, there are sources who hint that Tenochtitlan girls were provided with the opportunity to attend their local district schools as well, for at least a period of one year. A priestess of the local temple that would be usually adjacent to the district schools as well as to the exclusive calmecac – this one had several temples surrounding it – would teach the girls skills needed in their future marital lives. Creating cotton and maguey cloths was first and foremost job expected of every woman, commoner and lady alike, their skills at their looms praised and required. More intricate crafts of delicate embroidery might have been taught in both schools, or maybe in noble calmecac alone. Cooking and sewing might have been a prerogative of the commoner telpochcalli female students.

Again unlike their telpochcalli peers, the calmecac girls might also have been taught reading and writing, and basics of mathematics. Expected to run households of their rich husbands they had to deal with complex economics of management plentitude of slaves and supplies. A girl that did well in the ceremonial studies might have counted on staying in school in order to become a priestess, responsible for certain deities and their ceremonies – a highly respectable position that would not require a life commitment. Priestesses often got married, leaving their offices to their younger fellow women to take, their status assured for their entire lives as a respectable woman, a minor nobility maybe, liable for a good marriage, even with noblemen.