The Sumerian Poem Schooldays: Sumerian Satire & the Scribal Life (opens in new tab)

Schooldays (written circa 2000 BCE) is a Sumerian poem describing the daily life of a young scribe in the schools of Mesopotamia. The work takes the form of a first-person narration and dialogue in relating the challenges the student faces and how he resolves them by having his father bribe his teacher with expensive gifts. Although understood as satire, Schooldays is considered an accurate representation of the life of a Sumerian student and teacher in the 2nd millennium BCE.