Sparta - The Education of the Boys

Introduction
Education in earlier Greek city-states is quite different. The main goal is to prepare a person to become a successful citizen in all states of life. Every Greek city-state has its own goal when it comes to training of its young citizens, according to the state needs, to transform him into a successful adult citizen useful both to the city-state in terms of emergency and to the society, where he stays with his family members.

Greek City-State’s Education System
Among all the educationally, culturally sophisticated city-states including Athens, Sparta, a military city-state, maintained its numero uno status. Because of this, Sparta became the connoisseur for all other city-states in training its young citizens. Being an authoritarian, military city-state, the education goal of Sparta is mainly to concentrate on producing soldier-citizens. Unlike Sparta, Athens, which is also a contemporary Greek city-state, was a democratic state and used to encourage its citizens to train in terms of both war and arts. Education in the form of arts was given more importance in Athens and the boys were taught how to read and write besides military war craft.

Spartan’s Main Goal
Since the main goal of Spartan boys was to build a good muscular body, learn to endure pain and suffering, get skilled in warfare, and learn not to bow down in front of even great enemy military force, they used to live a life of hardships to accustom themselves to the hardships of their soldier way of life.

The Training of a Spartan
Sparta state used to choose and grade its citizens for joining in its rigorous training and educational system. The grading of the Sparta boys starts at the time of their birth. The basic eligibility is to have a good body with all the parts of the body functioning properly. The boys of Sparta were supposed to join the public education system by age of seven. From seven to 18 years of age, the boys were trained in all sorts of war activities. Dancing, music, and poetry were also considered part of every Sparta citizen’s education.
Every Sparta boy’s main goal was to become a great soldier in his life. Once the training is completed, every boy needs to attend a final test where he needs to pass several difficult and painful tests. After the tests are passed, the boy can join the state militia – a reserved military force which can be called to its duty during any state emergency - and could do service up to the age of 60 years.
Those who could not pass these final tests were allowed to become Perioikos or middle class. Perioikos could do business to support their life and their family members, but the state would not treat them as its citizens and they were also not given any political rights. In a way, Perioikos were second-class citizens in their own state. Only, soldier-citizens were allowed to have political rights and were treated as citizens.
The marriage life of Sparta soldier citizens is again an interesting topic. Though the soldiers were allowed to get married, they were supposed to stay in military barracks along with their brother soldiers until they attain the retirement age of 60. After reaching the retirement age, the Sparta soldier could go to his home and stay with his family members.
Though the education system of Spartans mainly concentrates on physical fitness, military warfare activities, etc, Spartans were renowned and universally admired for their manners in public and respect for elders.

Conclusion
Spartans, who were known for their ruggedness, physical fitness, military preparedness, yet highly mannered, educated, and humble-behaved, were the citizens of Sparta city-state. Sparta city-state’s educational system was highly renowned not only for its strict disciplinary methods but also for its sophisticated teaching methods, which can transform its eligible young citizens into successful adult citizens. The education system of Sparta made its citizen-soldiers’ capable of maintaining the existing city-state’s rules and regulations besides conducting highly refined diplomatic activities with their neighbor city-states.