Origin of the Western Education: Ancient Greece

Since 2000, PISA Program for International Student Assessment evaluates

scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading for 15-year-old students of
different countries in the world. This assessment repeated every three years. What if PISA
has existed for thousands years? Imagine the PISA of the ancient Greece. Could it make
proper standards to evaluate education systems of different nations? It must be tough to be
fair because the education systems of each region were quite different at that time. Ancient
Greece has an origin of Western education system. The ancient Greece was composed of
Polices, which were city states. Before we examine the ancient country closely, let us narrow
down the region as two Polices; Athens and Sparta, which were the strongest Polices of the
very era. Polices of ancient Greece were taking nationalistic perspective to manage their
political communities. Even though Athens and Sparta had the same ideology in bigger
scale, their education systems to actualize political ideals were quite different.
Dissimilarities between educations of two nations came from their social
atmospheres. It is a prime reason that they have diverse purposes and curriculums as well.
Athens was democratic Police. Every citizen of Athens was gathered in huge square named
Agora, and expressed their views in running country. Highly educated, competent citizens
who could set forth sagacious idea were required in this form of political organization. With
this condition, Athens should make curriculums to raise great politician and orator who can
argue their own opinions efficiently. The education of Athens, however, was not allowed for
everyone. Systematic and extremely high level education was only permitted to preparative
citizens. Criteria of Athens citizens were considerably strict. Only local men who are not the
member of slave class were qualified to be citizen. Though their education was limited only
privileged minorities, Athens actively utilize their education to cultivate human resources who
can lead the Police wisely. On the other hand, the highest value of Spartas education was
disparate the one of Athens. The citizens of Sparta should be strong enough to lead their

Police well. Only less than 10% of the whole Sparta was the leadership class. They always
worried about the treason of lower layer, who formed a large majority in whole number of
population. The leaders of Sparta thought that it must be dangerous to let citizens the
leader class weak. Therefore, they build a course of study to raise strong people who can
control the subjugated class, regardless their gender. The education system of Sparta was
quite competitive. It was aiming to raise tough soldiers. Unlike the Athens which was focused
on energetic argument to make a decision, the decision making of Sparta was extremely
vertical, and competitive. They even have two royal families and let them to keep each other
in check. This social atmosphere was bodily reflected in education. Right after birth, infants
should pass the test to check if he or she is healthy enough. If babies were not qualified in
the standards of Sparta, parents abandoned their own children. Moreover, Public school did
not give them enough food to survive, forcing them to steal food if they want more. Under
these dissimilar social moods, ideal citizens of two Polices were also has a wide gap.
The perspectives toward individual were also different. They emphasized endemic
abilities which were influenced in their communities. It leads the distinction between the
education contents. Since Athens wanted to make great sages who could tell his own idea
well, their education system was Humanities centric. They focused on 7 departments to
express individual viewpoints in various ways. These subjects must be familiar to
contemporary man, because modern schooling is formed after the model of it. 7
departments were subdivided into 2 branches. One is Trivium, and the other is
Quadrivium. Trivium concentrated on the language, and articulates the inner space.
Grammar, rhetoric, and logic were the parts of it. The core of Quadrivium was number.
Number was a method to express objective space. Since it is composed of abstract symbols,
number was considered as an important medium to approach rational truth over the
emotion. Algebra, geometry, astronomy and music were the subjects of Quadrivium. Athens
had such compacted curriculum, however; there was a limitation. Athens did not focus on the
study of real-life. They only concentrate on the utopian life of peaceful days. Vocational

training was disregarded. Therefore, it could not work as a part of the raising system. Sparta,
however, highly regarded the physical education and actual training to prepare the war
situation. They simply learned reading and writing of brief sentences, accurate
comprehension, singing, being respectful to elders, patience, and patriotic spirit. Compare to
Athens, it was quite simple. Instead of complicated argument, Spartans focused on physical
training. They had public education systems. Government offered school (military) system
depending on childrens age. Until the year of 30, they should follow the very curriculums to
be a real citizen of Sparta. If not, they could not be qualified as citizen, and not allowed to
get lands which were portioned by the nation. The unique characteristic of Spartan education
was that they also let women to be educated. They thought that women should be trained
because they must protect their social status and keep their Police from the treason if men
were going out for a war. Moreover, they believed that healthy and strong women can give a
birth to good and talented child, especially boy who has great physical status. At the public
education facilities, Spartan girls learned martial arts and simple sports. Considering the low
social position of women in whole ancient Greece, it was preposterous to build a public
curriculum for girls. With this higher social status than other Polices, women could get power
in home.
As noted above, Athens offered education for only men, who were citizens of the
very Police, however; Sparta provided public education to their citizens regardless their
gender. Likewise, the curriculums of the school were quite different. The education of Athens
starts with the home training. Until the year of 7, boys were trained by adults in house. After
that, Elementary education offered to 8 to 16-year-old boys. In this level, children could take
classes of basic idea. 17 to 18-year-old boys should go to public school of physical
education, and afterward, they should spend two more years in public school. The later
period of Athene education was divided into elementary middle high school and military
training. Of course they were more focused on academic field than physical area. One of the
most famous teaching methods of Athens is Socrates Method. Teachers kept asking

questions to give a proper direction to students. Students were led to find out the truth of the
world by themselves. Utterances of students were free if they have clear thoughts. Sparta
had much stricter public education. Spartan children also started their education with home
training until they become the age 7, right before they get into basic military training. One
significant divide between Athens and Sparta was the curriculums for girls were also
prepared. Due to education contents for Spartan girls already has been mentioned, and
Athens only has curriculum for boys, comparison target is going to set limits to the training
for boys. 7 to 17-year-old boys took parts in basic military training called Agoge. Boys lived
with their peers and underwent the basic training to be a soldier. After Spartan boys passed
the basic military training at the age 17, they entered intensive course: special military
training. It takes two years to complete. After they finished the whole training course, they
would get another lesson in the real military service of Sparta. Working as a soldier for 10
years is a duty of Spartan men. In actual training Spartas children learned how to steal food
for survival. If they were caught, they were severely whipped not because their theft, but
being caught because of their careless.
Athens and Spartas education systems are quite different, and these dissimilarities
can be categorized in 3 perspectives: social mood, purpose of education, and school
system. People of ancient Greece were trying to raise their next generations to make better
societies which fit on their values. Athens focused on individuality of everyone to lead
democratic nation, and Sparta was aiming to raise strong leader class for stable society.
With these two symbolic education systems of them, we can get some hints how to teach
our students. Which one should we choose? Maybe the education system of the Athens is
more efficient for todays society than Spartas. However, we shouldnt forget some good
points from Sparta. They provided government initialized education system to their citizens
and tried to make proper society members who can adapt to their own society. They
completely understood their own society, analyzed it, and construct the optimum education
system.