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Ancient Greece vs. Modern America

For the Better or Worse?

By Lillian McCoyPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Most of the whole world, especially Americans, believe that America’s schools are the worst schools ever. Their reasoning is that these schools were made during the Industrial Revolution to prepare children for work. Schools are still claiming to do that, but times have changed. Work settings value leadership and creativity, not the “shut up, do work” method schools are still using. But (just a random thought) what if our education system originated in Ancient Greece? How different would it be? And would it be any better?

Well, let's start with how Ancient Greek students were taught. Boys went to school at six-years-old, while most girls learned how to manage the house. The boys were taught the arts—such as music and poetry. Physical education was taken just as seriously, so schools taught that too. They were let go at 20-years old. (This paragraph is from "Education in Ancient Greece").

Sparta is different. In Sparta, both boys and girls went to military school at the young age of six. Boys were pushed much harder than the girls, though. If any of these poor boys were caught crying, they were often beaten. Obviously, Spartans took war much more seriously than the arts. Because of this, the students were taught very little of them. (This paragraph is from "Education in Ancient Greece for Kids.")

Modern American public education has made schooling much more complicated. The kids usually start school around five-years-old. They start in elementary, then go to middle school, and after that, high school. (I’m not counting preschool). In elementary, students are put into one classroom each day with one teacher that teaches them a variety of subjects. In middle and high school, students have multiple classes and teachers in specialized areas. Students can choose some of the classes they attend. High school tends to have more elective (optional) classes, though. But each student has to have these classes—math, English, social studies, science, and PE.

In order to pass on from one grade to the next, you have to get higher than a 59% each semester, which is otherwise known as a D. A D is a part of a lettering system that we Americans (I don't know about Britain and Australia) use instead of percentages. A (100% - 90%) is the best grade, and F (50% - 0%) is the worst grade. For some reason, we skipped E.

As this paper stated earlier, Ancient Greece had a much simpler education than modern America. However, there are a few similarities. We learn the arts and have PE (physical education) just like they did.

But, the Ancient Greeks focused more on discipline, which is where most American students are lacking (including me). They also had a closer relationship with their teachers and tutors.

So, the answer is, yes, it would be pretty different. But would it be better? From here on out, this article will be biased, so yeah. Anyway, I believe that it would be better. We shouldn’t base our system on Sparta’s, though. That would make people hate it even more. But, in the other Greek cities, students had a close relationship to their teachers—they could talk about their home life without a tutor rolling their eyes. They were taught discipline and WANTED to learn.

We are overly exposed to the boring side of learning. The teachers should make it fun! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming the teachers. I’ve met some good quality teachers in my life, and some bad ones too (most of the bad ones were substitutes). I’m blaming the schools that ignore everyone that says, “We need a change here.”

Everything changes. We need to accept that fact before we’re stuck in the past. Thanks for reading!

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