Sparta Agoge Research Paper

Ancient education was filled with a lot of harsh and rough training, but it was necessary. Spartan education was very tough for This is because they were an extremely militaristic community that focused on physical training rather than reading and writing. They were training them in such a way that would bring upon them unbearable pain and agony. The strengths of Spartan education far outweigh the weaknesses, this is because women were equal to men, Spartans were vigorously trained to be strong, and that everyone was taught to be respectful and obedient.

sentence: No food, One garment, Not being with your family and being whipped. That was life for many Spartans. Although the education system in Sparta had a successful military to survive, There is a cruel way of training and treating the people. The education sexist, brutal, unfair, only military education was taught.

The spartans only accepted babies that were strong. If the baby was weak they would leave it to die one Mount Taygetus. They would begin at the age of seven for training. The selection of spartan warriors began before birth. They would send boys at the age of seven to military boarding school.

Spartans were very strict and set high expectations for their men in war. Taken from their families at the young age of 7 to train, the boys were whipped and starved. Spartans also enslaved people, called helots. The innocent helots were killed without warning. Spartans were so

Spartans military was a hard core and well rounded out military in its time. Part of the reason why they were so successful is because of their rigorous training each boy had to go through. Why I said boy is because the Spartan military training would start at age 7 for a chosen boy. The boy gets chosen to live in spartan society at birth. If the Spartans did not believe that the boy would be rounded out for their society they would leave the boy to die. During the boys training hazing and fighting was encouraged to help improve strength among the boys. During spartan training each boy was mainly taught mathematics, music, and how to fight. Also during their training, they would learn how to steal but without getting caught. If they were caught they would not be punished for stealing but only for getting caught. This type of training continues until the boys would become men. Which is at the age of 20 for the Spartan's. At age 20 Spartan men would have to pass a series of demanding

After an embarrassing defeat at the battle of Hysiai Sparta went through great military change, these changes dramatically changed all other areas of Spartan life, turning Sparta into a military focused state. This militaristic influence impacted greatly on Spartan education, essentially aiming to mass produce the perfect solider. The education and training of Spartan boys aged as young as 7 in the agoge became the crucial

Lycurgus, a prince who was regarded as the founder of Spartan education, “introduced the custom of wearing one garment, throughout the year believing that they would thus be prepared to face changes of hot and cold,” (Doc. B). Lycurgus did not do this out of ruthlessness but rather to help the boys in the future by preparing them to easily come accustomed to their surroundings. Also with food, Lycurgus would give them a limited amount because “he believed that those who underwent this training would be better able to continue working on an empty stomach,” (Doc. B). This helped the boys survive when their was no food given to them. These rules taught the boys that their would always not be abundant resources in battle and also how to adapt to these

The government in Sparta followed a very different coarse than that of the Athenians. It was controlled by an oligarchy in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. Working below the ephors was the Council of Elders and an Assembly. Male citizens over age sixty could serve on the Council while anyone, male or female, over the age of twenty could be a member of the Assembly. Though the citizens had little say in the decisions made by the government, the system worked effectively. Over the years, the Spartan's brutal reputation in war grew so great that other nations and city-states were too frightened to attack Sparta even though the Spartan army was no larger then eight thousand men. The Spartan Constitution called for all men to begin their military education at the age of seven, where they were trained to be tough and self-sufficient. Every man in the army fought with a great deal of passion for his country. Life in Sparta may have been rough, but the rest of the Greeks envied the Spartans for their simplicity, straight forwardness, and fanatical dedication. The beliefs of Sparta were oriented around the state. The individual lived and died for the state. The combination of this philosophy, the education of Spartan males, and the discipline of their army gave the Spartans the stability needed to survive in Ancient Greece.

Also, as Document B describes, the Spartan boys had no footwear and had to wear one clothing throughout the year. This helps for future wars when soldiers have to endure extreme conditions. However, it also leads to the fact that Spartan education was overemphasized on physical fitness, not much of “academic learning” we focus on

Secondarily, education did not only include teachings on academics, but also teachings needed for survival. A Spartan education included teachings on survival tactics that were useful during battle. Xenophon, an Athenian general had witnessed educators that had “required them to harden their feet by going without shoes”(Document E). This could have helped to allow them to endure the worst of the Earth’s surface. Xenophon had also witnessed the educators that had “introduced the custom of wearing one garment throughout the year”(Document E).

In the progress of training most young boys died trying to become a full citizen of Sparta. If you didn’t want to be disowned by your family, you would have to enter the Agoge. A military training service most men actually devoted their life to. Warfare

Most people volunteered at the ages of seven which was the starting, until twenty-one. At the early time when the education system switched to focus on the body, the world, not only Sparta, was getting attacks and invasions from outsiders and the physical educational system was surely

When a Spartan boy turned seven, he was placed in the state-mandated “agoge,” which doubled as both a school and training center for young men. Boys lived apart from their families and learned "scholastics, warfare, stealth, hunting and athletics” (Andrews), with an emphasis on activities which were useful in combat, such as “boxing, swimming, wrestling, javelin-throwing, and discus-throwing” (“Spartan”). Once a boy turned twelve, he was forced to sleep outside, deprived of any clothing except for a red cloak, and expected to scavenge and steal food without being caught. A young Spartan completed the program around age twenty, became “active-duty” military until turning thirty, and remained in the military reserves until sixty. Clearly, while the Spartan soldiers’ training regimen was unusually extensive, it was highly effective at ensuring a strong

The ancient Greeks made city states that functioned as their society. These were small, usually consisting of a population of around eight to ten thousand people. Some of the famous city states are Sparta and Athens. Sparta imposed many tensions on the individual. Sparta was a highly militarized state and would pull the boys away from the family usually around age seven and put them into a state sponsored training regimen that would make them highly skilled warriors. If the boy was unable to complete the training for any reason they were seen as unable to be a Spartan and were usually seen as an outcast and removed from society. The Spartans, just like most other societies in ancient times, valued boys over girls. “Spartan parents often exposed female babies to the elements and leave them to die they also made decisions on male infants testing them and seeing if they would develop into a mature warrior and if not they would face the same fate as females.”1 This

The next stage in turning a Spartan male into a Spartiate soldier was for them to become enrolled as an eiren, or a prefect. Their job was to oversee the younger boys, as had been done for them. They were encouraged to use violence against the younger boys to toughen them up. The older boys were now expected to attempt to get into a syssition, however if they failed to get into the syssition they applied for they would lose their citizenship and become an outcast. The Spartans at this point were able to go to war and get married, however they were not allowed to leave the barracks.