Statesman, jurist, historian, scholar, and philosopher Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunis on May 27, 1332. Ibn Khaldun is an exemplary example of product of the Islamic education that children and youth received. He received a traditional early education of Qur'an, jurisprudence, and Arabic grammar. In his early 20s traveled to Fes to complete his education with the eminent scholars of his day. Ibn Khaldun wrote The Muqaddimah in 1377 as the preface and first book of his world history volume. It is regarded as the earliest attempt made by any historian to discover patterns in changes in political and social organization and it represents a departure from traditional historiography that merely chronicled events. The majority of the volume was prepared in the form of academic lectures to be read aloud. The text often appears repetitive, but this makes sense in light of Ibn Khaldun's new terminology the fact that he wrote before the invention of printing.

Ibn Khaldun was remarkably modern and scientific in his thinking. At the same time, he was very much a part of his age in that he based his rational views on unquestioned religious, physical, and geographical assumptions. For example, in this selection, Ibn Khaldun criticizes the traditional pedagogy of rote memorization that was practiced in Islamic societies for teaching children and youth. However, he later goes on to explain that inhabitants of the eastern parts of Islamic civilization have accrued superior intelligence because of their sedentary culture (the western region consisted largely of nomadic Berber tribes). This document brings up the question of how effective memorization is as a pedagogical technique for teaching children and youth.

During the medieval period, gifted children who successfully memorized the entire Qur'an left their home at the age of about 12-14 to travel to a nearby town and eventually around the Middle East to study with renowned academic authorities to hear historical, religious, philosophical, and legal texts. When the student could recite the material flawlessly, the authority issued the student an ijazah (diploma). The ijazah system was based on a system of learning that prioritized memorization, face-to-face student-teacher contact, and oral recitation. An ijazah could vary in length from one paragraph to a sizable volume. They contained: an opening prayer; a flattering introduction of the student; the date of issuance; the authority's biography; and a genealogy of the chain of transmission of the mastered material, reaching back to the original author.

Accurate oral transmission was important in the age before printing and this is why teachers evaluated students on memorization and oral recitation. The main goal of education was to train students to be future scholars of Islamic law, which required the ability to trace long chains of transmission that proved the validity of hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet). The hadith were used in legal decisions that did not have a clear answer in the Qur'an itself. Students seeking specialized education in medicine, astronomy, or other fields would study at the courts or centers known for these fields, or would travel to read in the libraries where collections were found, perhaps receiving the hospitality of the library’s patron or a foundation during the period of study.

The quantity of acquired ijazahs contributed to a student's future status as a scholar. Status was largely based on the links a scholar could document to earlier generations of scholars in the Muslim community. Each time a student received an ijazah, it meant that he had mastered a body of material that had been transmitted through a long series of scholars. The symbolic importance of these certificates can be noted in their artistic prose and artistic appearance. One notable difference between the ijazah and the medieval European university degree––an individual rather than an institution.

On the two major celebrations of the Islamic lunar calendar—Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha—public festivities in cities and towns across Muslim regions of Asia, Africa, and elsewhere include rides of various kinds. In the photograph at top from Jenin, in the West Bank city of Palestine, children and young adults ride a whirling disk brought in for the occasion. In the lower photograph, Afghani children ride swings suspended from wire cables. Large and small swings, slides, seesaws, elephant rides and moon bounces make up the amusements for Eid, or celebration day, enjoyed with family, food from street stalls, sweets, and gifts of money and toys. The occasion of Eid al-Fitr, shown in these images from September 2009, is the end of the month-long fast from dawn to sunset during the ninth lunar month of Ramadan. (Bracketed by the sighting of the new moon, the month of Ramadan may be 28 or 29 days in length.) During that month, adult Muslims are obligated to abstain from food, drink, and sexual activity, except for those whose health does not permit it, such as diabetics, or travelers, who make up the days later. Children show a remarkable enthusiasm for participating in the Ramadan fast, even though they are not required to fast. Beginning as young as 5 or 6, however, children join other members of the family to fast part of the day, or just a few days in the month. They also join in family meals, which often include guests, visits to other homes, and trips to the mosque (Arabic, masjid) for evening prayers. The first day of the tenth lunar month—Shawwal—is the day of Eid al-Fitr, which begins with prayers held outdoors to accommodate the huge crowds.

The anecdote is a lesson to a child who is probably at the adolescent stage of life, and very concerned with how peers and others view him. The experience of the father and son pair shows the futility of trying to act on fickle public opinion. It also plays upon ambiguities in the relationship of care and respect between parent and child at the stage of adolescence, when the parent is aging and the child takes on more responsibility to look out for the parent, in addition to bearing responsibility for behavior that reflects favorably upon the family.

Goha is a popular comic hero in Muslim regions of Africa and Asia, found under various names including Juha and Abu Nuwas in the jokes of North Africa and Southwest Asia. Goha is a good-natured member of the learned class of ulama' and imams (a group often satirized for their foibles), whose stories reflect Islamic values and folk wisdom. He often rides a donkey, is sometimes a rural and sometimes an urban figure who displays both poor and middle class attributes. He is an Everyman, underdog, and hero, both learned and stupid, who provides a mirror of the life and the concerns of ordinary people. The photograph is a still image from a children's television program in Afghanistan that is designed to build literacy among children in areas underserved by schools, and as a supplement to schooling. By tapping into cultural familiarity with the iconic Goha figure, the program seeks to gain acceptance for innovative ways of delivering educational content.

The girl in the photograph, Cecelia Nealon-Shapiro, reads from the Torah as part of her bat mitzvah, a rite of passage ceremony, at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City. Prior to this day, she attended classes in Jewish history and tradition, Hebrew, and recitation at the Reform synagogue, where girls now participate in a rite formerly reserved for boys, the bar mitzvah. Following the service, the family and guests, including several girls who were adopted by American families from the same orphanage in China, celebrated at an elaborate party.

At age 12 or 13, a Jewish girl becomes a "bat mitzvah" which literally means "daughter of the commandment." Bat mitzvah marks the time when a Jewish child is old enough to perform the mitzvot (commandments) and is considered an adult in the religious community. Neither the bar mitzvah for boys, nor the bat mitzvah for girls are formal religious ceremonies. The bat mitzvah observance is not carried out in Orthodox and Chasidic synagogues where women are not allowed to lead prayers.

Learning about Jewish history, customs, and holidays is a way that modern Jewish communities seek to transmit tradition and law to a new generation. The spirit of the bat mitzvah also includes choosing service to the community, representing engagement with the larger world beyond the family and living according to the values of their faith.

The three boys in the photograph belong to a group of Israeli boys who came together at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2008 for a mass bar mitzvah celebration. The orthodox social service organization Colel Chabad arranged the celebration for orphans and needy families. Several prominent Israeli rabbis participated in the celebration of this important Jewish rite of passage to adulthood.

"Bar Mitzvah" literally means "son of the commandment." This rite of passage marks the time, at the age of 13 for boys, when children are obligated to observe the commandments of Jewish law. Technically, no ceremony is needed, because a boy automatically passes this milestone upon becoming 13 years old. In recent times, the bar mitzvah has become popular and widespread as an individual and family observance. During Shabbat (congregational prayer) services on a Saturday shortly after the child's 13th birthday, the celebrant is called up to the Torah to recite a blessing over the weekly reading. In preparation for this day, the young boy spends time learning the Torah portion and prayers. Community service is often a part of this preparatory period before the bar mitzvah. A speech before the congregation occasion traditionally begins with the phrase, "Today I am a man. . ." The father also recites a blessing.

The 2009 United Nations Arab Human Development Report describes a "youth bulge" as a high proportion of 15-29 year olds relative to the adult population. Young people are the fastest growing segment in Arab countries, with youth under 25 years of age comprising about 60% of the current population. The median age of the total Arab population is 22 years, compared with the global average of 28.

The youth bulge is viewed in the research literature both negatively and positively. According to the 2009 report, the region will require 51 million new jobs by 2020 to employ youth entering the labor market. The challenge will affect women more than men, whose current unemployment rates are 31.2% compared with 25% for men. Female youth employment was as high as 59% in Jordan with male youth unemployment at 35%. Unemployment, alongside increasing urbanization, are often tied to rising extremism, causing concern for the region.

The youth bulge, however, can also be viewed as an opportunity, a chance to empower youth and harness their energy to help build neighborhoods and countries. With sufficient forethought and investment, a youthful labor force is an opportunity for economic growth and stability. Over the next 30 years, the hazards and opportunities presented by the youth bulge in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) will be important tests for governments in the region and for the global development community.

[Download pdf file of chart here].

This tablet, from ancient Sumeria (as early as 2000 B.C.E.), details a day in the life of a school boy. Students learned by copying lessons on clay tablets, memorizing the lessons, and then reciting them for the school's headmaster (the "school father") or other teachers, monitors, and proctors of the school.

The composition translated here, about a day in the life of a budding scribe, was evidently widely known, because scholars pieced together its full text over a period of 40 years (from 1909 to 1949) using 21 tablets and fragments excavated at various places from ancient Mesopotamian sites. The largest fragment (shown here) came from the Sumerian sacred city of Nippur, in present-day Iraq.

The young scribe-in-training described here is repeatedly caned by his teachers for failing to memorize his lessons and for disciplinary problems. The boy then asks his parents to invite the headmaster to their house and to provide him with wine, food, and gifts. Noah Kramer, the scholar whose translation appears here, described it as "the first recorded case of 'apple-polishing' in the history of man." The strategy apparently worked because by the end of the dinner, the headmaster praises the young man to Nidaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing, and predicts that he will become the foremost student in the school.

The bas-relief, or carved panel, in limestone shows two sisters embracing. They are princesses from the family of Akhenaten, the 18th pharaonic dynasty in ancient Egypt, dated to 1349–1336 BCE. This artistic style belongs to the Amarna period, which is unusual because of the affection and intimate portrayal of the sisters. Unlike the more formalistic or highly symbolic style of portraying royalty typical of other periods, this image shows the older and younger daughter of the king in close contact, touching each other tenderly. Depiction of the girls in an informal pose and the older girl's torso facing the viewer are other unusual features. The older sister has her arm draped around her younger sister's shoulder, while the little girl holds her sister's elbow and looks up at her.

Associate Curator Diana Craig Patch notes that the stone block on which the relief was carved is another feature of Akhenaten's reign. His new emphasis on Aten as the chief deity led Akhenaten to build temples at a rapid pace to honor the god. He ordered architects to use smaller blocks than those found in most Egyptian monuments, because they could be carried by one person alone, speeding up the building process. This limestone block is approximately 8 3/4 in. (21.2 cm) high and 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm) wide. Akenaten's successors, in an effort to erase his innovations, demolished the temples and used the blocks for other projects. This carving was used as fill at another temple site near Amarna, and was recovered by archaeologists in the 20th century.

The photograph at the top shows two children gazing into the soft light of a fanoos [fan-NOOS], or traditional Ramadan lantern. In the photograph below, Ramadan lanterns are hung outside a shop in a section of medieval Cairo. As far as is known, the tradition originated in Egypt, perhaps as long ago as pharaonic times, when it may have announced the Nile flood. The tradition in its current form may date to the Fatimid period (969-1171 CE). It isn’t clear when the custom became associated with the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, when Muslims keep the fast from dawn to sunset. Indeed, lanterns and lamps of various kinds, of many hues and degrees of brightness, and even both real and imaginary, have always been special to Egypt. For centuries before the coming of electricity, Cairo itself was noted for its spectacular use of lanterns to illuminate the city, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

The tradition of the colorful lanterns is coupled with the song, which children sing as they process through the streets of Egyptian, and especially Cairene neighborhoods announcing the coming of Ramadan, and collecting coins and sweets. The words of the song that are not translated are obscure, perhaps referring to fire or light (wahawi, ya wahawi). "You have gone, O Sha'ban" refers to the lunar month before Ramadan, and "the daughter of the Sultan is wearing her caftan" means she is dressed in a loose, often embroidered garment worn when going out and on holidays. "Give us this season's gift" is a plea for the small presents children would receive from adults for going out in procession to announce the coming of Ramadan.

Children are typically very excited about the coming of Ramadan, because it is a festive time that lasts an entire month. Even though abstaining from food and drink daily from dawn to sunset is a hardship, many children are anxious to participate as much as they can, fasting part of the day or just a few days. Some manage to fast the whole month by the age of ten or so. After sunset each day, in contrast, special, abundant food, friends and family, and evening activities, including visits to the mosque (Arabic, masjid) take place. Ramadan culminates in the major festival called Eid al-Fitr at the end of the month. Children traditionally receive new shoes and clothing, money, sweets and toys as a reward for just trying, or accomplishing the fast.