Education in Mesoamerica Before the Spanish

In the central Mexico in a cultural area known as Mesoamerica, the Aztecs set up schools called calmecac for the training of warriors and schools for the training of priests, called cuicacalli. An early post-conquest manuscript prepared by native scribes for the viceroy of Mexico, Codex Mendoza shows these two types of schools. Aztec religion was highly complex and priests held a high status, so that the creation of schools to train them in ritual and other aspects of religion was important. Overseeing an imperial, expansionist empire, Aztec rulers needed trained warriors, so that the creation of formal schools for their training was as important.