Sparta and Athens belong to slavery countries, and the state attaches great importance to children's physique and adopts concrete measures of "optimization method". Education is carried out in the family, and mother is a natural teacher. Despise any manual labor and labor education.
I. Preschool Education in Sparta
Sparta is located in the Ragogna Plain in the southwest of Peloponnesian Peninsula, with rolling mountains in the north, rocky coast in the south and flat basin in the middle. Although it is not convenient to communicate with the outside world, the land here is fertile and suitable for developing agricultural economy. It was the largest agricultural city-state in ancient Greece.
The inhabitants of Sparta are divided into three categories: Spartans are foreign conquerors, slave owners, and Silos are indigenous and conquered slaves; Pirasians are ethnic minorities living in border areas and belong to freemen without political status.
Spartan rulers, less than 30 thousand people, were agricultural military nobles. Relying on their power, they forced slaves ten times more than them to farm the land and carried out cruel national oppression and economic plunder, which led to frequent slave uprisings.
In order to suppress the struggle and resistance of slaves, all Spartans were incorporated into the army. This social situation determines that Sparta attached great importance to the characteristics of military sports from early childhood education.
In order to maintain the rule of their slave owners, Spartans always tried to maintain a strong military force in order to quell internal slave riots or defend their territory from foreign enemies at any time.
In addition, Sparta tried to dominate the whole of Greece and often launched aggressive wars against other countries. Therefore, the task put forward by the ruling class in education is to train all the descendants of Spartan slave owners into warriors with strong body, strong character, hatred of slaves and obedience to their elders. The cultivation of such people must start from the birth of the baby.
Spartans generally believe that children are the wealth of the country, and it is the duty of the country to educate children. In order to ensure the health of the new generation, the state only allows adult men and women with normal physical and emotional conditions to get married and have children.
Second, pre-school education in Athens.
Athens is another famous city-state in ancient Greece. It is located in Attica Peninsula at the southernmost tip of Peloponnesus, with mountains to the north and the sea on three sides. It is not suitable for farming, but it is rich in minerals and excellent in seaport, which creates favorable conditions for overseas trade and industrial and commercial development.
Therefore, as early as the 7th century BC to the 6th century BC, some slave owners began to operate commerce and shipping, and set up manual workshops to become industrial and commercial slave owners. They had a fierce political struggle with the old agricultural slave owners. In the struggle for power, both sides tried their best to attract the broad masses of freemen to their side.
The result of the struggle between power and interests added democracy to the political life of Athens. In the struggle, Athens experienced a series of political reforms, such as Solon's reform in 594 BC, Christini's reform in 509 BC, and Perikles's reform from 443 BC to 429 BC, which gradually formed Athens' democracy.
The implementation of this slave-owner democracy laid the foundation for the prosperity of Athens' economy, culture, art and the development of education, and made ancient Greece innovate brilliant culture.
Although the education in Athens also served the slave owners and nobles, it showed a completely different educational model from Sparta because of the different political, economic and cultural backgrounds.