Spartan Upbringing

a state system of education and training that existed in Sparta from the eighth to the fourth century B.C. Its purpose was to prepare physically strong, staunch, courageous, tough warriors devoted to the slaveholding system. At the age of seven or eight, boys were enrolled in state military boarding schools, where they lived until the age of 20. A Spartan upbringing included various physical exercises, inurement to hardships, and training in the art of war (at first through war games and later through special preparation), as well as reading, writing, the art of speaking concisely and clearly, choral singing, and the playing of musical instruments. Girls received physical training within the family.

In a figurative sense, the term “Spartan upbringing” refers to a rigorous system of upbringing to develop such qualities as endurance, steadfastness, and the ability to bear hardships and difficulties.