Public Education, Civic Duty

Successful completion of the public system of upbringing, the agoge, was a prerequisite for Spartan citizenship.

Public education was provided for girls as well as boys.

Spartan education was famed for its exceptional harshness and emphasis on physical skills and endurance.

It was also characterised, however, by an astonishing degree of self-government, freedom, and responsibility.

Furthermore, literacy in Sparta was higher than in any other Greek city-state, because only in Sparta was there a high degree of literacy among women as well as men.

Spartan ("laconic") rhetorical style was admired throughout the ancient world, attesting to its high quality — a product of the agoge.

Spartanpublic education was the subject of extensive—and controversial—discussion even in the ancient world. No other contemporary state provided for, and in fact required, its citizens to go through the same "upbringing" or agoge. Unfortunately, because we must rely on descriptions of the system provided by outsiders, we have a kind of "mirror image" of the Spartan agoge. Observers reported that which struck them as unique or different from education in their own cities, rather than reporting systematically about Sparta's system of education. Equally distorting for the modern historian interested in archaic Sparta is the fact that all our existing ancient sources in fact describe a Spartan educational system that was reinstituted in the Hellenistic period after what may have been nearly a century in abeyance. It is often very difficult to distinguish "traditional" from "innovative" features of the described schooling.

Nevertheless, a number of characteristics of this education can be surmised.

First, it is important to note that collective education was considered so important that the agoge was not only a compulsory prerequisite for citizenship, but all adult males bore an equal responsibility for rearing good citizens. This was manifest in the laws that required boys in school to address all older men as "father," and gave any citizen the right to discipline a boy or youth under age. All citizens were directly involved in the education of the next generation in another respect as well: at the age of 20, before being awarded citizenship at 21 and serving in the army, young Spartans acted as instructors in the agoge for their younger classmates. Last but not least, despite the emphasis on public education, it would be absurd to think that parents did not take a very personal and intense interest in the education of their own offspring. Numerous quotes demonstrate the pride and sense of personal accomplishment that Spartan mothers felt with regard to their sons. Human nature, which has changed very little in 3000 years, suggests that fathers would not have been less proud.

Second, all sources agree that the principal goal of public education was to raise good future citizens. One aspect of this goal is obvious: future citizens were by definition professional soldiers, and so the educational system very clearly sought to create physically hardened men, capable of enduring hardship, pain and deprivation. The emphasis of the education was thus on athletic activities and military skills. Many anecdotes are told about the hardships the boys endured, and that they were allowed to steal. Despite a common misconception found even in ancient commentary, careful research indicates that the boys in the agoge were not encouraged to steal throughout their training—only during a specified segment. Most likely, this was a form of "survival training" intended to teach the youths how to survive on their own so that they would be able, for example, to operate behind enemy lines. Throughout their public education, they were evidently subjected to harsh discipline, which apparently included flogging—a punishment reserved almost exclusively for slaves in other Greek cities.

Less obvious and often overlooked by modern observers is the fact that the goal of producing good future citizens was not fulfilled by producing good soldiers alone. Ideal future citizens were democratic, self-sufficient and independent. Thus, despite the harsh discipline, Sparta did not seek to break her youth or make them subservient. Instead, they were taught democracy from the very start of their schooling—not in theory but in practice. On starting school at the age of seven, the boys were organized into units, teams, or "herds"—and elected their own leaders. Some sources suggest that they also "elected" their instructors from among the eligible 20-year-olds.

Furthermore, although the emphasis of Spartan education may have been on physical education, this training could not have been exclusive. The fact that no contemporary source mentions that the boys learned to read and write has been taken mistakenly to mean they did not. This is absurd. There is abundant evidence that the Spartans were every bit as well-educated as other Greeks. Anything less would have put Sparta at a disadvantage in foreign affairs, and would have made it inconceivable that Spartans were repeatedly requested to assume positions of leadership. Furthermore, the percentage of Spartans who were literate clearly exceeded that of any other city-state because—in contrast to the other cities—Spartan women were literate. The fact that learning to read and write it is not mentioned in the descriptions of the Spartan agoge is a function of the fact that all Greeks learned these skills while in school, and so this was not deemed worthy of comment. Worthy of comment, however, was the excellence of Spartan education in music, poetry and dance. The boys and youths of the agoge were famed for their proficiency at all three skills. It must be assumed that these activities were nearly as important as physical education.

Another area in which Spartans excelled was in brevity and clarity of expression. Rhetoric in ancient Greece was highly valued. Men are known to have paid large sums to improve their speaking skills, and in democratic Athens power rested with those men who could sway the assembly with their rhetoric. This skill with words alone accounts for Pericles' or Alcibiades' power in their time. If Athenians collected Spartan sayings and "laconic" forms of expression were admired, this is clear testimony of the quality of Spartan education in this regard.

Lastly, the manners of Spartan youth were universally admired in the ancient world, and comparisons were often drawn to the rude, impudent youth of other cities. One anecdote describes an old man looking for a seat at the Olympic games. As he stumbled about from one section to the other, the spectators laughed at him. But when he came to the Spartan section, all the Spartans stood to offer him their places—and there was universal applause. The moral drawn by the commentator was: you see, all Greeks know how we ought to behave, but only the Spartans act on it.

It would nevertheless be imprudent to conclude that Spartan youth was as virtuous as its reputation. As the stories of theft suggest, it is far more likely that Spartan youth learned to appear obedient and respectful in public, and also learned just how to do whatever it liked when it was "out of sight."