LESSONS OF SPARTAN EDUCATION FOR OUR PRESENT DAY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS

LESSONS OF SPARTAN EDUCATION FOR OUR PRESENT DAY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS

Imperfect as the Spartan educational system was, it has some messages for us today. First, we need to learn that for excellence in athletics, there must be constant training and the earlier the youths are identified for such physically demanding roles, the better. For, in ancient Olympic competitions, Sparta usually defeated all other city-states, winning more than half of the laurels. Today, most families frown on letting youths fend for themselves, whereas there may be a point in letting youths try it if only to realise that survival depends on it.

However, there are very many things we should never learn from the Spartans. Lack of morality destroys society, as it finally did Sparta. Lying, cheating, stealing, etc., are vices that should be recognised for what they are. Besides, today, we know that killing or abandoning deformed or invalid children is evil. Good a thing today that rather than destroy or throw them away, our society caress for them in special institutions, for we now realise that some disabled children are indeed very useful to society.

From Athenian education, we have learnt and can still learn a lot. To start with, the development of subject areas is indirectly owed to them. Secondly, moral education which was the centre of Athenian education has influenced our own system today. Perhaps, we still need to stress more of this since our school subjects like literature, history, government, religious studies, etc., could still contain more of moral lessons.

Besides, we need to learn to be more accommodating of other people’s ideas. Recall that the Sophists who greatly influenced Athenian education were not Athenians themselves. But because they were accommodated, they contributed to the glory of Athens. We should learn to be more tolerant of others’ ideas, though we need not swallow them hook, line and sinker.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we need to learn from the Athenians that it is only under a free atmosphere that education and civilization can thrive. An administrative system that gags the press and the school system cannot sow the seeds of growth.