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Bernardo Gallegos
Page 02 - Part E
At birth the child was examined by a council of
elders (R. I), and if it did not appear to be a promising child it was
exposed to die in the mountains. If kept, the mother had charge of the
child until seven if a boy, and still longer if a girl. At the beginning
of the eighth year, and until the boy reached the age of eighteen, he
lived in a public barrack, where he was given little except physical drill
and instruction in the Spartan virtues. His food and clothing were scant
and his bed hard. Each older man was a teacher. Running, leaping, boxing,
wrestling, military music, military drill, ball-playing, the use of the
spear, fighting, stealing, and laconic speech and demeanor constituted the
course of study. From eighteen to twenty was spent in professional
training for war, and frequently the youth was publicly whipped to develop
his courage and endurance. For the next ten years--that is, until he was
thirty years old--he was in the army at some frontier post. At thirty the
young man was admitted to full citizenship and compelled to marry, though
continuing to live at the public barrack and spending his energies in
training boys (R. 1). Women and girls were given gymnastic training to
make them strong and capable of bearing strong children. The family was
virtually suppressed in the interests of defense and war. [9] The
intellectual training consisted chiefly in committing to memory the Laws
of Lycurgus, learning a few selections from Homer, and listening to the
conversation of the older men.
As might naturally be supposed, Sparta contributed little of anything to
art, literature, science, philosophy, or government. She left to the world
some splendid examples of heroism, as for example the sacrifice of
Leonidas and his Spartans to hold the pass at Thermopylae, and a warning
example of the brutalizing effect on a people of excessive devotion to
military training. It is a pleasure to turn from this dark picture to the
wonderful (for the time) educational system that was gradually developed
at Athens.
Source: THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION, by ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
[ Part A ]
[ Part B ]
[ Part C ]
[ Part D ]
[ Part E ]
[ Part F ]
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