how was education different in athens and sparta
Education in ancient Greece Spartan women, unlike their Athenian counterparts, received a formal education that was supervised and controlled by the state.[41] Much of the public schooling received by the Spartan women revolved around physical education. Until about the age of eighteen women were taught to run, wrestle, throw a discus, and also to throw javelins.[42] The skills of the young women were tested regularly in competitions such as the annual footrace at the Heraea of Elis,[43] In addition to physical education, the young girls also were taught to sing, dance, and play instruments often by traveling poets such as Alcman or by the elderly women in the polis.[44] The Spartan educational system for females was very strict because its purpose was to train future mothers of soldiers in order to maintain the strength of Sparta's phalanxes, which were essential to Spartan defense and culture.[45]