Education.
Sparta represented a phase of education in Greece. Surrounded as it was by people who were hostile to its ways and customs, it was necessary that the young should be trained to be patriotic to the state and skilled in war. To this end education began before birth, for means were used for having strong children born and those not strong at birth were cast aside from the state. If the child at birth was decided by the council to be fit to grow up to be a Spartan, then he was given to his mother and remained with her till his seventh year, when he was taken from her and put under the care and training of state officials.
When at seven years of age the boy was taken over by the state, he was placed in the care of an officer called the paedonomus. This officer had supreme power over all the boys and youth and superintended their moral training and gymnastic exercises and their punishments, having men to assist in the work.
All the education was at public cost and all the young were placed in public buildings, eating and sleeping in common, all being placed together in common, even the younger members of the royal family, the heir-apparent to the throne being alone exempt. Here they were divided into three companies according to age—from the seventh to the twelfth year, from the twelfth to the fifteenth, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth. The elder and stronger boys were placed over them as, captains and had them in charge.
When the boy first entered with the others his hair was cut short. The life was one of continued severe discipline and hardship. In summer and winter they went without shoes and with but little clothing, after the twelfth year with only one garment. They slept on pallets of straw without covering and after fifteen their beds consisted of rushes collected by themselves without the use of a knife. They were given but little food. They had permission to steal other food, but if caught stealing they were considered disgraced and received a severe flogging.
The training of the boys consisted in gymnastic exercises, being carefully organized and graded. The younger boys were drilled in running and leaping and ball-playing. The older boys engaged in wrestling, boxing, throwing the discus, and hurling the javelin. Sometimes the pancratium was used, consisting of boxing and wrestling and also most anything to win, as biting, kicking, scratching, gouging. The contestants generally were naked. Dancing supplemented the gymnastics, which for the most part were war-dances and also some choral dancing was given to be used in religious festivals. This was all done to prepare the young for warfare.
When a boy reached eighteen years of age, he then left the buildings for boys and entered upon a more distinctive study of warfare. He was permitted to let his hair and beard grow and was known as a melleiren, "budding youth." These youths were drilled in the use of arms and in skirmishing. They were given frequent strict examinations. To test their courage and endurance, there was a custom of each year of whipping a certain number of youth. They were placed at the altar of Artemis Orthia and so severely whipped as to cause the blood to stream from them, their fathers and mothers standing by and urging them to endure it without flinching or murmuring. Sometimes they endured till they died under the severity of the whipping. Also there was another test in the way of a battle of the melleirenes, held each year on a small island near Sparta. These youths were divided into two companies, sacrifices to the gods were made, they were lined up against one another, and then commanded to fight. They fought without weapons, but fists and teeth and body and limbs were most fiercely used, and many were the wounds received.
At twenty years of age, the budding youth became known as an eiren, "a youth." These remained youths for the next ten years and they lived in barracks to themselves. They took a public oath of loyalty to Sparta and entered the army, thus going into real military life. They entered upon the life of a soldier, lived upon the coarsest fare, were drilled in the usages of warfare, and were sent out to guard and care for some armed camps or fortresses on the border. Each year there were festivals in which was displayed by all the youth their skill in military drill and gymnastic exercises and in music and dancing, such exhibits being before the king and the officers and the public.
At thirty years of age, the Spartan was recognized as being a full-grown man and became a member of the public assembly and was required to marry. But even then he had to remain with the youths and boys and eat at the common table with them, so that he had no home and had to visit his wife secretly in her home. He also continued in military service. It was the custom for each man to select a boy or a youth as a companion and to look after his care and training. These men were expected to be examples to the boys and youths and to correct them in their faults, the men being punished upon failure to do these things.
The girls of Sparta received a public training similar to that of the boys. It was the aim to train them so as to become strong, healthy women, such as could bear robust sons to the state. They were given gymnastic exercises such as were given to the boys, but not in company with the boys, and also the girls were permitted to remain at home. They were exercised in running, wrestling, leaping, throwing the discus, hurling the javelin, and in dancing and music. On some occasions the young men and young women danced and sang together in public in festivals to the gods. This training did produce strong women and who were as patriotic as the men and who as mothers could give thanks to the gods in the temples when they learned that husbands and sons had died fighting for their country.
It may be seen that Spartan education was public and free and open equally to all free-born children. The Spartan youth received very little intellectual training. No doubt some acquired reading and writing, as such was not forbidden, although not encouraged. They obtained ethical and intellectual training from listening to their elders at meals and on the street. They gained from criticism of their conduct, which criticism was severe at all times. Thus they learned reverence for elders, honesty, and self-respect. All the sufferings and hardships placed upon the youth were that they might receive training to make them good soldiers to go out to battle for their native land. Although Spartan education did produce warriors and patriots, yet it did not bring out individuality, that which makes most for true progress and right living. "The state regulated the individual life, and, by so doing, crushed out individuality, personal initiation, literary and scientific activity, and ethical freedom."[175]
Athens represented another phase in Greek education. A new conception of human life developed here and hence there came forth new ideas in regard to the meaning and end of education. The idea of the significance of the individual took prominence and, although interests centered upon the state, yet the state was considered as being composed, of individuals, each of whose free development made the voluntary giving of his life to the state all the stronger and better state. The citizens of Athens were educated for peace as well as for war, so that the aim of education was to produce all-round men who by being trained to be individuals would thus make the best citizens.
At birth the child at Athens was judged by the father and upon his decision it remained in the family or it was taken from the mother and exposed. If it was returned to the mother, whether a boy or a girl, it remained in the home till marriage, when the man or woman went to his or her own home. For the first seven years of the child's life, both boy and girl, he was under the care and training of the mother and the other women of the household. The Athenian boy was well cared for and given plenty to eat and to wear and toys and playthings, so that at least the early years of his life were easy and pleasant. By hearing the nursery-rhymes and the stories from folk-lore, and by having related to him the doings of the gods and god-like men as given in the writings of the times, his emotional nature was stimulated and he became imbued with the poetic feeling and dramatic spirit which invaded Athens and with which later he was to come in close contact through his school training and in his social and political life.
When the boy became seven years of age, he was sent to school. He was then placed under the charge of a male slave, known as a pedagogue, whose duty it was to go back and forth to school with the boy and carry his things and to have care of the boy's manners and morals, having the power of discipline, but he did not impart instruction, that being given by the grammatist (elementary teacher) and the pedotribe (gymnastic teacher). The state did not provide elementary schools, although they were under its supervision. The schools were not only private, but the father had the right to decide what work should be given to his boy, and yet the law did prescribe instruction in gymnastics and music. If the father did not give due education to his sons, in his old age he could not claim support from them. The length of stay in the school and the amount of education obtained depended upon the will and condition of the father, but all the boys did receive elementary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The physical training consisted in ball-playing, running, leaping, throwing the discus, hurling the javelin, and wrestling, the course being graded to the age and size of the boys. They were also taught dancing and music. Their education was to train the boy to be able to use his body with ease and grace and to increase his intelligence rather than to train him solely to become a soldier.
At fifteen years of age the boy passed out of the elementary training and from the control of the pedagogue, and if of the higher classes he entered upon higher training. He now left the private school and entered the public school, the gymnasium, which was not more than an exercising ground located in a grove just outside Athens. At this time the youth was given much more liberty than when a boy, as now he was allowed to go wherever he wished, that he might become acquainted with what was going on in the city to prepare him for the duties of public life. He was still under the care of his father or guardian and through him he had opportunity for meeting men and hearing the conversations and discussions and thus learn of the political life of the state and the moral obligations of a citizen. At this time the youth began to learn to play a musical instrument and he read and recited poetry and studied drawing and geometry and grammar. The gymnastic training received much more attention at this period than the literary, as beauty of person and health was the great aim. The exercises were about the same as in the previous period but of a more strenuous nature. Boxing was introduced now and sometimes the pancratium was used. Hunting and swimming became a part of the life of the youth.
At eighteen the young man completed the second period of public training and became known as an ephebus, "youth," His father or guardian presented him for citizenship, and if he showed proper credentials of legitimate birth, of Athenian parentage, up to standard in body, mind, and morals, he was registered. He also took an oath of fidelity to the state. He then entered into military service and continued for two years. He was thoroughly drilled and then sent to the frontier. At the close of this second year, when he was twenty years of age, he was called to Athens and examined for citizenship, and if he made a proper showing he was then made a full citizen, with all the privileges and duties pertaining to that office.
The pedagogue was not held in high esteem, as he was usually a slave that was unable to work, being too old or crippled. The elementary teacher, too, did not take a high, position, as there were no special qualifications, so that any one could fill the position and usually only those entered into this work who were unfitted or unprepared for other occupations, and too often as the last resort. The elementary schools were sometimes carried on in a portico or the sheltered corner of a street, but again there were good buildings and well-equipped for the times. The furniture of these buildings usually consisted of stools for the children and a seat with a back for the teacher. The Athenian boy left home at daybreak for school and he did not get back home till sunset, but this was somewhat offset by the frequent closing of the school for holidays and festivals. The discipline was quite severe, the stick and the strap being much in evidence, and yet the teachers of ancient Greece do not appear to have been more cruel than those of Europe and of the earlier days in America.
In reading, the child was first taught his letters and their sounds, next came the learning of syllables, and this was followed by the learning of words, and the learning of the sentence came at the last. After he had learned to read, the boy was given Homer and other Greek writers. The teacher would recite the selection and the pupil would then repeat it. The poems were carefully explained to the children and questions asked them after such explanation.
Paper made from the bark of the papyrus-plant and parchment were used for writing on. To write on the paper and parchment reeds, split and pointed-like pens were used. Both black and red ink were used in the writing. Such were not used by the school-boy, as he had wax tablets, which were made by covering a small, thin board with a layer of wax. The boy used an ivory or metal pencil for writing on the tablet. One end of the pencil was made pointed for this purpose and the other end was flattened so that the pupil could smooth over the wax when the tablet was to be used again. The teacher would write letters and words, which the boys copied. At times he would guide the hand of a beginner. Also sometimes the copies were made deep in the wax and the children would trace them.
There was no such thing as school education of girls and young women in Athens, no public training whatever. The Athenians held that woman's place was in the home and that she should not take part in public life. Hence, according to their ideas, the girl needed no education beyond what would be required for the life within doors, such as would fit her to perform what they considered the simple duties that would come to her as wife and mother. The education of the girl, therefore, fell solely to the mother, aided by the other women of the household. The girl was taught to sew, spin, knit, weave, etc., and sometimes she learned to read and to write and to play on the lyre and sing. It is true there were women at Athens who were educated, and some of them were most highly learned, but they were not citizens of Athens, being foreigners and known as the hetairai. These women were discussed in a previous section of this chapter, so there is no need of further statements here.
Education in Sparta and in Athens comprehended in a general way much the same, as gymnastic and music were the two basic elements. The gymnastic education consisted not only in the exercising of the muscles, but also in the training for endurance to fit the young men for the fatiguing duties of the life of a soldier. Also music was broadened to include literary and moral training as well as music in its narrower sense. If the Spartan education did crush out much of individuality with the men, yet it did allow advantages to its women as no other education, in that the public training of the girls and the taking part in public affairs by the women gave to them great opportunities for growth. If the Athenian education did allow individual expression to the men, yet in confining the women to the narrow place of the home at Athens and in not allowing them to have any part in public education and public life, it narrowed the life of the woman in Athens more than was narrowed the life of the man in Sparta. There are things to praise and things to condemn in the education of Athens as well as that of Sparta.