Strengths And Weaknesses Of Spartan Education

The education in Sparta was extremely rigorous. They had to train hard and were prepared for war, so their lessons were centered on this. Boys started training as young as the age of seven. The weaknesses of Spartan education outweigh the strengths because the training was harsh, children were encouraged to steal, and many subjects were not taught.

To begin with, the training was very demanding. Much of the physical activity the children practiced could injure them. For example, during wrestling if the student did a move incorrectly, they would be hurt or in serious cases die. In addition, sometimes the students did not receive enough food. Without food the body begins to breakdown, which could lead to the loss of troops. The students would receive terrible beatings if they did something wrong. For instance, if they were caught stealing they would be whipped for their crime. Occasionally students would die from …show more content…
This horrible encouragement for kids. The students would do this because they did not have enough food. Theft affects the economy because it causes businesses to lose money. Also, if the students were caught stealing they received severe punishment. Stealing also put the students in danger. Plutarch said “One youth having stolen a fox and hidden it under his coat, allowed it to tear out his bowels with its claws and teeth and died rather than betray his theft.” Stealing affected morals, the economy, and health of the children.

The worst weakness in Spartan education was, that children were only taught reading and writing. Students were only taught the fundamentals of reading and writing. Besides that, they did not learn much else. In Sparta subjects such as math and history were banned from their education. This shows that Spartans were not very interested in book knowledge. This means that the Spartans would be more likely to fall into a trap or be defeated by a poor war tactic they