Spartan education system.
In Sparta, almost all major affairs are handled and directly managed by the state, and education is no exception. In order to safeguard the national rights and social and political system of Spartans, the ruling class attached great importance to education. "The direct goal pursued by the country is to cultivate Spartans into war land and become powerful, well-trained and future slave owners. All education in Sparta is also subject to this task. " In order to achieve this goal, all Spartans should receive military education and training from an early age to serve national security.
In Sparta, babies born with normal physical development and no diseases or defects are allowed to survive, and their mothers or nannies are responsible for taking care of them until they reach the age of 7. Boys will be sent to national educational institutions to receive military sports training all the year round until 18 years old.
In order to meet the needs of the cruel war in the future, children and teenagers should spend most of their daytime on military sports training, wrestling, fighting games and ball games; They should often participate in the internship activities of killing slaves at night to exercise their courage and practical ability; In order to make future soldiers develop superhuman endurance, educators often make children face all kinds of hardships and endure hunger, thirst, cold and pain in the process of receiving education and training.
Spartan rulers attached great importance to the military sports training of future soldiers and cultivated their patriotism, but seriously neglected the study of cultural knowledge. Reading, writing and arithmetic are not included in the compulsory subjects in school. Many students are illiterate until they are 18 years old at school. Students should also study music and dance at school, but the purpose of learning these things is to inspire courage and cultivate strict discipline.
18 years old, students entered the "Everby" institution established by the state, and often participated in military exercises under the guidance of military commanders to sneak up on slaves. After the age of 20, he became a formal soldier of the national army.
Women in Sparta, like men, have to receive strict military sports training under the supervision of the state, but they can live at home. The Spartan rulers made women receive compulsory military physical training for two purposes: "The first is to give birth to strong children, and the second is to hand over the task of guarding the city to the women who stayed in the city when the war broke out."
As can be seen from the above introduction, Spartan education has the following characteristics:
(1) has a distinct class nature. Emphasize that education is the privilege of Spartans, and slaves have no right to education.
(2) The state attaches great importance to education, establishes public educational institutions, and strictly educates all Spartan children and adolescents (including women).
(3) Pay attention to the military sports training of young students and put patriotism education throughout the whole process of education.
(4) Ignoring the intellectual education of the younger generation leads to their one-sided physical and mental development.
(5) Sparta attached great importance to the education of the younger generation, and put patriotism education and military sports training at the center of education, thus cultivating a group of brave and patriotic soldiers for defending the country. The rulers of Sparta seriously lacked understanding of the importance of cultural knowledge and paid no attention to the education of cultural knowledge for young people. As a result, the quality of the trained people is not high. "Spartans are conservative, narrow-minded, aloof and even ignorant."
2. The educational system in Athens
Athens was a powerful slave-owner city-state in ancient Greece. It is located in Attica Peninsula, surrounded by the sea on three sides and mountains on one side. Her land is not suitable for growing crops, but it is good for growing olives and grapes. She also has an excellent natural harbor, which is conducive to the development of trade. The rapid development of industry and commerce in Athens has created a lot of wealth for the country, promoted the development and prosperity of science, technology, culture and art, and accelerated the division within the slave-owning class. The contradiction between industrial and commercial slave owners and traditional agricultural slave owners with growing economic power is very fierce. They both strive to win the support of freemen, which has had an important impact on the education in Athens.
Like Sparta, the rulers of Athens attached great importance to the education of the younger generation. "Educating children is the responsibility of the state and every father, but it does not interfere with the details of the whole education, nor does it absolutely control education." In Athens, there are both public schools and private schools.
In order to make the future Athenians better adapt to the needs of developing industry and commerce, participating in the political and cultural life of the country and defending the country, the Athenian rulers emphasized that education should not only cultivate the qualities of loyalty, courage and strength that individuals need when participating in defending the country and handling personal leisure activities, but also enable them to have all kinds of talents, be eloquent, be good at communication, and be able to handle business and various public affairs rationally, justly and intelligently.
In Athens, children have to undergo strict physical examination after birth, and only healthy children can be allowed to survive. Children are mainly raised by their parents at home from birth to 7 years old. After the age of 7, girls continue to stay at home, and their mothers are responsible for their education, learning knowledge and skills in textile, sewing, daily life and diet. After the age of 7, the boy was sent to school for formal education.
In Athens, "the task of primary education is to lay a good foundation for children to participate in civic activities and serve the country in the future." After the age of 7, boys study in private grammar schools and music schools for 5-6 years. The former enables children to learn the knowledge and skills of reading, writing and calculation, while the latter enables them to master the skills of music, singing and recitation. /kloc-after the age of 0/3, children in Athens continue to learn theoretical knowledge in grammar schools and music schools, and at the same time receive strict physical training in gymnastics schools to help them have a strong body and form a good personality.
15- 16 years old, most people began to look for jobs in the society, and a few rich and powerful aristocratic children entered the national gymnasium to receive comprehensive physical education, intellectual education and aesthetic education for about two years.
In Athens, people aged 18-20 are in the preparatory stage of naturalization, and they can receive systematic military education in the youth military training regiment organized by the state. By the age of 20, after some ceremony, they were officially awarded the title of citizens of Athens.
As can be seen from the above introduction, the education in Athens has the following characteristics:
(1) has a distinct class nature. In Athens, education was the privilege of nobles and civilians, and slaves were not qualified for education at all.
(2) Attach importance to the role of cultural knowledge in the process of students' growth, and emphasize that education should cultivate Athenians with comprehensive and harmonious development of physical strength, intelligence, aesthetic feeling and moral character.
(3) There are two kinds of schools in Athens: public schools and private schools.
(4) Athens seriously neglected women's education.
Because the rulers of Athens attached great importance to education, the role of cultural knowledge in students' growth and the harmonious development of students' body and mind, they trained groups of high-quality talents with various abilities, which effectively promoted the development of Athens' industry and commerce and promoted the democratization process of the country. Education in Athens is an important part of the world's educational heritage, which has a great influence on the education of later generations (especially the education in ancient Rome and the education in Renaissance Western Europe).