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Spartan System
The Spartan society desired that all male citizens become successful soldiers with the stamina and skills to defend their polis as members of a Spartan phalanx. There is a misconception that Spartans killed weak children, but that is not true. It was a rumor started by Plutarch, a Greek historian, who evidently got his history wrong. After examination, the council would either rule that the child was fit to live or would reject the child sentencing him to a death by abandonment and exposure.
Agoge
Military dominance was of extreme importance to the Spartans of Ancient Greece. In response, the Spartans structured their educational system as an extreme form of military boot camp, which they referred to as agoge. The pursuit of intellectual knowledge was seen as trivial, and thus academic learning, such as reading and writing, was kept to a minimum. A Spartan boy's life was devoted almost entirely to his school, and that school had but one purpose: to produce an almost indestructible Spartan phalanx. Formal education for a Spartan male began at about the age of seven when the state removed the boy from the custody of his parents and sent him to live in a barracks with many other boys his age. For all intents and purposes, the barracks was his new home, and the other males living in the barracks his family. For the next five years, until about the age of twelve, the boys would eat, sleep and train within their barracks-unit and receive instruction from an adult male citizen who had completed all of his military training and experienced battle. The instructor stressed discipline and exercise and saw to it that his students received little food and minimal clothing in an effort to force the boys to learn how to forage, steal and endure extreme hunger, all of which would be necessary skills in the course of a war. Those boys who survived the first stage of training entered into a secondary stage in which punishments became harsher and physical training and participation in sports almost non-stop in order to build up strength and endurance. During this stage, which lasted until the males were about eighteen years old, fighting within the unit was encouraged, mock battles were performed, acts of courage praised, and signs of cowardice and disobedience severely punished. During the mock battles, the young men were formed into phalanxes to learn to maneuver as if they were one entity and not a group of individuals. To be more efficient and effective during maneuvers, students were also trained in dancing and music, because this would enhance their ability to move gracefully as a unit. Toward the end of this phase of the agoge, the trainees were expected to hunt down and kill a Helot, a Greek slave. If caught, the student would be convicted and disciplined-not for committing murder, but for his inability to complete the murder without being discovered.
Ephebe
The students would graduate from the agoge at the age of eighteen and receive the title of ephebes. Upon becoming an ephebe, the male would pledge strict and complete allegiance to Sparta and would join a private organization to continue training in which he would compete in gymnastics, hunting and performance with planned battles using real weapons. After two years, at the age of twenty, this training was finished and the now grown men were officially regarded as Spartan soldiers.
Education of Spartan women
Spartan women, unlike their Athenian counterparts, received a formal education that was supervised and controlled by the state. Much of the public schooling received by the Spartan women revolved around physical education. Until about the age of eighteen women were taught to run, wrestle, throw a discus, and also to throw javelins. The skills of the young women were tested regularly in competitions such as the annual footrace at the Heraea of Elis, In addition to physical education the young girls also were taught to sing, dance, and play instruments often by travelling poets such as Alcman or by the elderly women in the polis. The Spartan educational system for females was very strict, because its purpose was to train future mothers of soldiers in order to maintain the strength of Sparta's phalanxes, which were essential to Spartan defence and culture.
AF Sitemap
- Education Topics
- Achievement Gap
- Alternative Education
- Assessment & Evaluation
- Educational Leadership
- Educational Philosophy
- Educational Research
- Educational Technology
- Educational Videos
- Education Economics
- Education Environment
- Education Issues
- Education Policy
- Education Psychology
- Education Reform
- Education Theory
- Education Worldwide
- Federal Education Legislation
- Homeless Education
- Homeschooling in the United States
- Migrant Education
- Neglected/Deliquent Students
- Pedagogy
- Sociology of Education
- Special Needs
- National Directories
- After School Programs
- Alternative Schools
- The Arts
- At-Risk Students
- Camps
- Camp Services
- Colleges & Universities
- Counties
- Driving Schools
- Educational Businesses
- Financial Aid
- Higher Education
- International Programs
- Jewish Community Centers
- K-12 Schools
- Language Studies
- Libraries
- Organizations
- Preschools
- Professional Development
- Prom Services
- School Assemblies
- School Districts
- School Field Trips
- School Health
- School Supplies
- School Travel
- School Vendors
- Schools Worldwide
- Special Education
- Special Needs
- Study Abroad
- Teaching Abroad
- Volunteer Programs
- Youth Sports
- For Schools
- Academic Standards
- Assembly Programs
- Blue Ribbon Schools Program
- Educational Accreditation
- Educational Television Channels
- Education in the United States
- History of Education in the United States
- Reading Education in the U.S.
- School Grades
- School Meal Programs
- School Types
- School Uniforms
- Special Education in the United States
- Systems of Formal Education
- U.S. Education Legislation
- For Teachers
- Academic Dishonesty
- Childcare State Licensing Requirements
- Classroom Management
- Education Subjects
- Educational Videos
- Interdisciplinary Teaching
- Job and Interview Tips
- Lesson Plans | Grades
- Professional Development
- State Curriculum Standards
- Substitute Teaching
- Teacher Salary
- Teacher Training Programs
- Teaching Methods
- Training and Certification
- For Students
- Academic Competitions
- Admissions Testing
- At-Risk Students
- Career Planning
- College Admissions
- Drivers License
- Educational Programs
- Educational Television
- Educational Videos
- High School Dropouts
- Higher Education
- School Health
- Senior Proms
- Sex Education
- Standardized Testing
- Student Financial Aid
- Student Television Stations
- Summer Learning Loss