Ancient Greek Education

The Greek Gods were much more down-to-earth and much less awesome than the
remote gods of the East. Because they were endowed with human qualities and often
represented aspects of the physical world--such as the sun, the moon, and the sea--
they were closer to man and to the world he lived in.

The Greeks, therefore, could find spiritual satisfaction in the ordinary, everyday
world. They could develop a secular life free from the domination of a priesthood that
exacted homage to gods remote from everyday life. The goal of education in the
Greek city-states was to prepare the child for adult activities as a citizen.

The nature of the city-states varied greatly, and this was also true of the education
they considered appropriate.

Both daily life and education were very different in Sparta, than in Athens or in the
other ancient Greek city-states. With the exception of the Athenians (who thought
Athens was the best!), Greeks from other city-states had a grudging admiration for the
Spartans.

They wouldn't want to be Spartans, but in times of war, they most certainly wanted
Sparta to be on their side. The Spartans were tough, and the ancient Greeks admired
strength.

Sparta

The goal of education in Sparta, an authoritarian, military city-state, was to produce

In ancient Sparta, the purpose of education was to produce a well-drilled, well-

Every Spartan, male or female, was required to have a perfect body.

On the other hand, the goal of education in Athens, a democratic city-state, was to
produce citizens trained in the arts of both peace and war.

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

The boys of Sparta were obliged to leave home at the age of 7 to join sternly
disciplined groups under the supervision of a hierarchy of officers. From age 7 to 18,
they underwent an increasingly severe course of training.

Spartan boys were sent to military school at age 6 or 7. They lived, trained and slept
in their the barracks of their brotherhood. At school, they were taught survival skills
and other skills necessary to be a great soldier. School courses were very hard and
often painful. Although students were taught to read and write, those skills were not
very important to the ancient Spartans.

Only warfare mattered. The boys were not fed well, and were told that it was fine to
steal food as long as they did not get caught stealing. If they were caught, they were
beaten.

They boys marched without shoes to make them strong. It was a brutal training
period.

Legend has it that a young Sparta boy once stole a live fox, planning to kill it and eat
it. He noticed some Spartan soldiers approaching, and hid the fox beneath his shirt.
When confronted, to avoid the punishment he would receive if caught stealing, he
allowed the fox to chew into his stomach rather than confess he had stolen a fox, and
did not allow his face or body to express his pain.

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 were subjected to strict discipline and harsh physical punishment; indeed, they
were taught to take pride in the amount of pain they could endure.
At 18, Spartan boys became military cadets and learned the arts of war. At 20, they
joined the state militia--a standing reserve force available for duty in time of
emergency--in which they served until they were 60 years old.

The typical Spartan may or may not have been able to read. But reading, writing,
literature, and the arts were considered unsuitable for the soldier-citizen and were
therefore not part of his education. Music and dancing were a part of that education,
but only because they served military ends.

Unlike the other Greek city-states, Sparta provided training for girls that went beyond
the domestic arts. The girls were not forced to leave home, but otherwise their training
was similar to that of the boys. They too learned to run, jump, throw the javelin and
discus, and wrestle mightiest strangle a bull.

Somewhere between the age of 18-20, Spartan males had to pass a difficult test of
fitness, military ability, and leadership skills.

Any Spartan male who did not pass these examinations became a perioikos. (The
perioikos, or the middle class, were allowed to own property, have business dealings,
but had no political rights and were not citizens.)

If they passed, they became a full citizen and a Spartan soldier. Spartan citizens were
not allowed to touch money. That was the job of the middle class. Spartan soldiers
spent most of their lives with their fellow soldiers.

They ate, slept, and continued to train in their brotherhood barracks. Even if they were
married, they did not live with their wives and families. They lived in the barracks.
Military service did not end until a Spartan male reached the age of 60. At age 60, a
Spartan soldier could retire and live in their home with their family.

GIRLS

In Sparta, girls also went to school at age 6 or 7. They lived, slept and trained in their
sisterhood's barracks. No one knows if their school was as cruel or as rugged as the
boys school, but the girls were taught wrestling, gymnastics and combat skills.

Some historians believe the two schools were very similar, and that an attempt was
made to train the girls as thoroughly as they trained the boys. In any case, the Spartans
believed that strong young women would produce strong babies.
At age 18, if a Sparta girl passed her skills and fitness test, she would be assigned a
husband and allowed to return home. If she failed, she would lose her rights as a
citizen, and became a perioikos, a member of the middle class.

In most of the other Greek city-states, women were required to stay inside their homes
most of their lives. In Sparta, citizen women were free to move around, and enjoyed a
great deal of freedom, as their husbands did not live at home.

No marvelous works of art or architecture came out of Sparta, but Spartan military
force was regarded as terrifying. Thus, the Spartans achieved their goal.

Girls were not educated at school, but many learned to read and write at home, in the
comfort of their courtyard.

Most Athenian girls had a primarily domestic education.

The most highly educated women were the hetaerae, or courtesans, who attended
special schools where they learned to be interesting companions for the men who
could afford to maintain them.

BOYS

In ancient Athens, the purpose of education was to produce citizens trained in the arts,
to prepare citizens for both peace and war.

Other than requiring two years of military training that began at age 18, the state left
parents to educate their sons as they saw fit.

The schools were private, but the tuition was low enough so that even the poorest
citizens could afford to send their children for at least a few years.

Until age 6 or 7, boys were taught at home by their mother or by a male slave.

Boys attended elementary school from the time they were about age 6 or 7 until they
were 13 or 14. Part of their training was gymnastics.

The younger boys learned to move gracefully, do calisthenics, and play ball and other
games. The older boys learned running, jumping, boxing, wrestling, and discus and
javelin throwing. The boys also learned to play the lyre and sing, to count, and to read
and write. But it was literature that was at the heart of their schooling.
The national epic poems of the Greeks - Homer's Odyssey and Iliad - were a vital part
of the life of the Athenian people. As soon as their pupils could write, the teachers
dictated passages from Homer for them to take down, memorize, and later act out.
Teachers and pupils also discussed the feats of the Greek heroes described by Homer.

The education of mind, body, and aesthetic sense was, according to Plato, 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 man in every part has need of harmony and
rhythm."

From age 6 to 14, they went to a neighborhood primary school or to a private school.
Books were very expensive and rare, so subjects were read out-loud, and the boys had
to memorize everything. To help them learn, they used writing tablets and rulers.

At 13 or 14, the formal education of the poorer boys probably ended and was followed
by apprenticeship at a trade. The wealthier boys continued their education under the
tutelage of philosopher-teachers.

Until about 390 BC there were no permanent schools and no formal courses for such
higher education. Socrates, for example, wandered around Athens, stopping here or
there to hold discussions with the people about all sorts of things pertaining to the
conduct of man's life.

But gradually, as groups of students attached themselves to one teacher or another,

The boys who attended these schools fell into more or less two groups.

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

Those who wanted training for public life studied with philosophers like Isocrates
who taught primarily oratory and rhetoric. In democratic Athens such training was
appropriate and necessary because power rested with the men who had the ability to
persuade their fellow senators to act.
Ancient Athenian Education                                                                                             

  1. Purpose:

    The Athenians wanted their sons to have a "rounded" education so that they would know
something about a wide 
range of subjects and be able to "appreciate" many things.

     Note: They were not concerned with specialization or preparation for any specific job.

  2. Schools:

  - most boys went to school roughly from age 7 to age 14 (girls stayed at home and learned the
skills of 
    housekeeping and motherhood, but some families hired private tutors to educate their
daughters - there
    were some very well educated Athenian women)

  - all schools were private schools - parents had to pay to send their children to school but the
fees were so 
     low that even  poor citizens could usually afford to have their sons  educated  and most did so
because they
     valued education

  - schools were mostly only one room  areas - often open to the streets on one side (perhaps with
a draw- 
     curtain to keep down distraction)

  - equipment was minimal: students sat on benches and held  their work in their laps - there were
no 
    chalkboards or other teacher aids - the teacher might have some books, but  students mostly
did not

  - the academic part of the school day began at dawn and lasted until about noon

  - teachers were often retired military men - discipline was strict, beatings were given not only
for 
    misbehaviour but also for careless mistakes

  - boys were mostly accompanied to and from school by an educated and trusted slave called
a PEDAGOGUE, 
    whose job it  was to protect the young man from undesirables, help him to choose good friends
and oversee
    his behavior and his progress in class (the slaves sat at the back of the class and observed)

  3. What they studied:

     The three main subjects that they studied were: Grammar, music  and Gymnastics .

  a. Grammar:

  - purpose was to produce "literate" citizens

  - content of this course was not just a study of the rules of correct expression in a language as
we understand 
     the word today. It included most of the "basics" of elementary education in our society - the
three R's, 
     reading, writing  and arithmetic

  - boys learned to write and calculate by scratching their letters with a sharp stylus onto the
surface of a 
    board with wax. When they finished with a tablet they took it for grading and then dipped it
into a tub of hot 
    wax so that it was ready for new work.                         

  - in the higher levels they studied "good" literature so that they might improve their writing
styles and 
    appreciate fine literature

  - much memorization was done - some boys could recite by heart all of the Iliad or the Odyssey

  - the teacher would add to his course whatever else he might happen to know such as some
science

    Most Athenian youths were finished school by about age 14.

  b. Music: (two purposes & two parts to the program)

  - boys were taught to sing, if possible, and accompany themselves on an instrument (the seven-
stringed lyre)

  - this was meant to help the boys so that they would be able to entertain friends at social
gatherings

  - boys were exposed to concerts of "good" music both to gain an appreciation for it and because
the Greeks 
    believed that fine music had a purifying effect on their souls and might help them to grow up
to be fine men.

  c. Gymnastics:

  - the Greek word for "gymnastics" meant "exercise done naked" (thus it was any form of
exercise)

  - in the afternoons, Athenian boys went to the PALESTRA, a large recreational complex on the
outskirts of the 
    city. It included changing and cleaning areas, playing fields, a swimming area, special exercise
buildings, etc.

  - when the boys arrived they removed their clothes and rubbed  their bodies with olive oil, and
under the 
    guidance of trained specialists, participated in many games and exercises

  - they ran, learned to swim, threw javelin and discus, wrestled, played team games like early
forms of field 
    hockey and football

  - the aim here was not to produce professional athlete but to turn out young men who were fit,
graceful, 
    attractive, with developed strength and coordination. It also gave the young men the habits of
fitness which 
    they hoped would carry through their lives

  - from Athens we get the well known motto: "A sound mind in a sound body"

     After the young man finished his basic education, he might go for higher education to one of
the schools of philosophers or the sophists. 
     From age 18 to 20, all able-bodied Athenian youths were to take military training for the army
or navy. Athens was justifiably known as the
     "School of Hellas" (Greece) because of their high standard of knowledge and respect for
education.

Two Greek City-States: Athens and Sparta                                                  

  l. Ancient Greeks: Not a Nation

  - throughout their whole history until they were conquered, the ancient Greeks were note a
single nation ruled 
    by one  government 
  - Greece was a collection of separate and independent city-states, and two of the most important
were Sparta 
     and Athens

  2. Sparta: a Military State

  - Sparta was located on a small plain in the southern peninsula  of Greece which is called the
PELOPONNESUS 
  - because it was surrounded by good farmland, Sparta was one of the few Greek states that
could feed itself

  3. Early Developments:

  - at first Sparta was the same as any other state formed by the Greek people

  - then, apparently, a great lawyer named LYCURGUS gave Sparta a new constitution. It was a
set of rules 
    which turned Sparta into a strict military state

 4. Spartan Education:

  - on the eighth day after a baby was born, it had to be taken before a council of elders for
inspection (if judged 
    weak, silly or wounded the baby was killed)

  - after being accepted young children were sent home where they were taught by their parents
where they 
     learned basic physical  skills, obedience, to be brief in speech, to be tough and have courage.

  - at seven, boys lived in military barracks, the purpose was to produce soldiers. In this military
school, older 
    boys were put in charge of the younger ones.  The bravest and most able were made officers.
They were
    taught to be fit and stay fit  through vigorous exercise, to be obedient and have courage to
fight, to steal
    successfully, to withstand pain and hardship without complaining (not like us) or breaking
down.

  - Taught the basis of reading, writing and calculations.  In later stages, they got instruction in
combat (with 
    and without weapons), military tactics and strategy.  By graduation at age 18, they were
excellent soldiers.

  - The girls stayed home and learned motherhood and housekeeping but this was accompanied
by much physical 
    activity for strength and fitness.
The Rest of a Spartan's Life

    Age 18 - 20: on active duty with a fighting unit and to complete training by observing the
veterans

    Age 20 - 30: on active duty, had to live  with his unit

    Age 30: becomes a full citizen

    Age 30 - 60: lives at home, but must take main daily meal with his unit, on call whenever
Sparta needed him.

    Age 60: retired

Spartan Social Classes

There were three classes of Spartan society:

      l. Spartiates: The top citizen class. These were the ruling military class, but they did not live
in luxury.

      2. Perioici: The middle class; free men but were not citizens.  These were managers of forms
for the Spartiates or
          skilled tradesmen.

     3. Helots: The lowest class. Indentured people, almost slaves. They did all the menial
work.