The Different Education View Between Athens and Sparta

Zhang+Lijuan

【Abstract】People have been concerned about education since ancient time. The right education view not only contributes to making the country move forward， but also helps humans individual growth. The education of ancient Greece is the home to western education， which has an important effect on the development of contemporary education. Sparta and Athens are the typical representative country-states. The thesis compares the two kinds of education from five aspects which are education feature， education purpose， and education content. And it summarizes reasons why they are different， which deepens peoples understanding of education view in ancient Greece.

【Key words】education view； Spartan education； Athenian education； difference

I. The Education View between Athenian Education and Spartan Education

Spartan education and Athenian education are partly different in five aspects.

Spartan education is famous for bringing up heroic soldiers， which is a rigorous education and training system for all citizen. The goal is to educate someone who is strong enough physically and mentally. Spartan education is a kind of military education. Whereas， Athenian education services for the slaveholders class. In Athens， people are longing for harmonious development both physics and mentality. Athenian education opposites professional training. Athenian regard educating children as their duty and they pursue the combination of body beauty and soul beauty in order to become a good citizen.

Spartan education view hinders the development of education seriously. Whereas， Athenian education pays much attention to the rationalism， and the understanding of harmonious development. They stand for totally two kinds of education view， both contribute to education views later at home and abroad.

II. The reasons Analysis

Spartan education differs largely from Athenian education because of their cultural background， which has existed for a long period.

On the one hand ， Spartan Education is famous for cruel training system. Sparta is the most largest agricultural country in ancient Greece， and the culture is backward relatively. In Sparta， the population proportion between the rulers and the ruled makes Spartan train all citizens by military management， which is a strict national military education system. Spartan does not attach much importance to language learning， they think that being quiet and behaving directly is the true quality of soldiers. Spartan education aims to educate students to be obedient soldiers and perseverant citizen. The feature of Spartan education that education is a collective activity leads to the military education. Education is completely controlled by country and is considered as the cause of the country. They pays much attention to the military， physical training and moral education， while cultural knowledge is not valued.endprint

On the other hand， in Athens， the convenient sea makes it develop better in industry and commerce. There are greater proportion population between the rulers and the ruled. Farmers and artisans are freemen. The complexity of the sharp class conflicts Athenian， which is the basic implementation of social democracy. Athens focuses on training young people to be versatile and articulate politician and businessman， and their education is to make citizens develop harmoniously in physics and mentality.

III. Conclusion

On the basis of preliminary understanding of education concept in ancient Greece， this paper analyses the differences between Spartan education and Athenian education. The reason that they are so different with each other is closely related with their long history. These two education views influences modern education to a great extent. The Essence of modern education is to cultivate an independent human in dignity， who is healthy physically and mentally， who has cooperation spirit with basic scientific knowledge， and who spares no effort to make contribution to his country in the future.

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