Jessica Sfintu

Ancient Greek Education

SPARTA

• The goal of education in Sparta, an authoritarian, military city-state, was to produce soldier-citizens.
• In ancient Sparta, the purpose of education was to produce a well-drilled, well-disciplined marching army. Spartans believed in a life of discipline, self-denial, and simplicity. They were very loyal to the state of Sparta.
• Everyone in Sparta was required to have a perfect body,
• When babies were born in ancient Sparta, Spartan soldiers would come by the house and check the baby. If the baby did not appear healthy and strong, the infant was taken away, and left to die on a hillside, or taken away to be trained as a slave (a helot). Babies who passed this examination were assigned membership in a brotherhood or sisterhood, usually the same one to which their father or mother belonged.
• BOYS:

·         They went through an increasingly severe course from the age of 7 through 18

·         They were sent to military school to be taught survival skills and to be good soldiers.

·         They were taught reading and writing, though it wasn’t as important.

·         They walked barefoot, slept on hard beds, and worked at gymnastics and other physical activities such as running, jumping, javelin and discus throwing, swimming, and hunting.

·         They took physical endurance tests at the ages of 18-20. If he didn't pass, he was to be a perioikos, who were not citizens.

·         Their whole lives were dedicated to war

• GIRLS:

·         They went to school at age 6 or 7

·         Lived, slept, and trained in their sisterhood's barracks

·         Taught wrestling, gymnastics, and combat skills

·         Believed that strong men produced strong babies

·         Took skills and fitness test around age 18, she was allowed to return home if she passed

·         If she failed, she would become perioikos

·         Required to stay inside their homes most of their lives

·         Citizen women were free to roam around the city in freedom, since their husbands did not live at home

·         No great works of art or architecture, but military was regarded as terrifying

ATHENS

• BOYS:

·         Purpose of education: produce citizens trained in the arts and to prepare citizens for both peace and war

·         Only required two years of military training starting at age 18

·         State left parents to educate sons as they saw fit

·         Private schools with low tuition

·         Even poorest citizens could afford to send their children for at least a few year

·         Boys were taught at home until the age of 6 or 7 by mother or male slave

·         Ages 6 or 7 through 13 or 14 à Elementary schools à gymnastics

·         Younger boys earned to move gracefully, do calisthenics, and play ball and other games

·         Older boys learned running, jumping, boxing, wrestling, discus, and javelin throwing

·         Learned to play lyre, sing, count, read and write.

·         Literature was at the heart of the school

·         Homer's Odyssey and Iliad were to be taken down, memorized, acted out, and discussed.

·         Plato: "The education of mind, body, and aesthetic sense was so that the boys may learn to be more gentle, and harmonious, and rhythmical, and so more fitted for speech and action; for the life of the man in every part has need of harmony and rhythm."

·         Ages 6-14 à neighborhood primary school or to a private school

·         Books were rare and expensive

·         Boys had to memorize everything

·         Used writing tablets and rulers

·         13-14 à poorer boys education probably ended and learned apprenticeship at a trade

·         Wealthier boys continued under tutelage of philisopher-teachers

·         Until about 390 BC, there were no permanent schools and no formal courses for suck higher education. \

·         Socrates wandered around Athens, stopping here or there to hold discussions with the people about all sorts of things pertaining to the conduct of a man's life.

·         Gradually, permanent schools were established

·         Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle taught at such schools

·         Two groups of Boys:

·         Boys who wanted learning for its own sake studied with philosophers like Plato who taught such subjects as geometry, astronomy, harmonics (the math theory of music), and arithmetic.

·         Boys who wanted training for public life studied with philosophers like Isocrates who taught primarily oratory and rhetoric. In democratic Athens, that training was necessary b/c power rested with the men who could persuade senators to act.

• GIRLS:

·         Learned to read and write at home in a courtyard

·         Primarily domestic education

·         Hetaerae --> most highly educated women

·        Entertaining

·        Conversation

·        rhetoric

·         Music and dance was not taken at home

·         Weaving, household chores, dancing, music, and physical education

·         In ancient Greece the separation of women emphasized a separate women's culture with special religious holidays and festivals.

·         Before the Trojan War, women could vote. The privilege was revoked for men felt that the women voted irresponsibly.

·         The idea was that women did not need a formal and full education in order to not compete with men.

The schools were so effective that they have been widely copied. The day is divided into subject periods and similar topics are studied. A teacher presents subjects according to his skill and to students divided by age. The school usually included a gymnasium for physical training.