History of Greek Education

Male Spartans began military training at age seven, they would enter the agoge system, until twenty years of age. The agoge was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of the Spartan State. In addition, they were trained to survive in times of privation, even if it meant stealing. Besides physical and weapons training, boys studied reading, writing, music and dancing.
Girls were also required to train physically. They believed strong women produced strong babies to produce future soldiers in order to maintain the strength of Sparta’s phalanxes which were essential to Spartan defense and culture.

Old education in classical Athens consisted of two major parts - physical and intellectual. Boys would begin physical education either during or just after beginning their elementary education. Students would write using a stylus, with which they would etch onto a wax-covered board. When children were ready to begin reading whole works, they would often be given poetry to memorize and recite. Mythopoeic legends such as Hesiod and Homer were also highly regarded by Athenians, and their works were often incorporated into lesson plans. Old Education lacked heavy structure and only featured schooling up to the elementary level. Once a child reached adolescence his formal education ended. Therefore, a large part of this education was informal and relied on simple human experience.

The Athenians began to value intellectual over physical strength. Secondary and post-secondary levels of education were added. More focused areas of study like mathematics, astronomy, dialects and harmonics were taught. However, only wealthy men had access to such education.

The Academy was founded by Plato in 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367-347 BC) The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC.

In 335 BCE, Athens fell under Macedonian rule and Aristotle, aged 50, returned from Asia. Upon his return, Aristotle began teaching regularly in the morning in the Lyceum and founded an official school called “The Lyceum”. Aristotle’s main focus as a teacher was cooperative research, an idea which he founded through his natural history work and systematic collection of philosophical works to contribute to his library.

The current Greek education system is similar to most around the world, with kindergarten, elementary, secondary and tertiary levels. Public elementary to tertiary education is free with provided textbooks