Aztec children were trained for adult roles at home by their parents and other family members until their early teens. After that, they were sent to free schools where training for their adult roles continued and other types of studies began. Aztec parents considered their children's education very important. While still infants, children were formally enrolled in the schools they would later attend. Schools for girls and boys were strictly separated, and schools for commoners were separated from those for the nobility.

All Aztec schools emphasized oral communication because Nahuatl, the Aztec language, was not written down phonetically until after the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. In addition to their spoken language, the Aztecs used a system of hieroglyphic or picture writing. Specially trained scribes recorded many kinds of information in handmade folding books. Because these books were costly and required special training...