Sumerian schoolboys copied satirical texts about their own beating

Evidence

The composition we are reading is, technically, a school exercise. Which is to say: the document about a boy at school is itself a thing that boys at school had to copy out. The text is meta from line one. We are reading what an elementary-school student copied as part of his elementary-school assignments — and what he copied was a description of his own life. — , The Rod and the Child, 27

Categorization

• FICTION: A school exercise describing a boy’s own beaten school day is a striking nested narrative device any writer could borrow.
• XREF: connects to: Wealthy Sumerian fathers bribed schoolmasters to spare their sons the cane — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 61; Roman schoolboys sometimes died by suicide from beating-related shame — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 566

Related

• Roman schoolboys sometimes died by suicide from beating-related shame (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Roman schoolboys sometimes died by suicide from beating-related shame #corroborates (0.55) — , The Rod and the Child, 566