How Did Sparta Outweigh The Weaknesses

Any society that abuses children should deserve to crumble. It was an ancient Greek city state known as Sparta. In Sparta, they would whip the boys as an athletic contest. Whoever could withstand the most pain won. Do the strengths of Sparta outweigh the weaknesses? No, the strengths do not outweigh the weaknesses because they were abusive, lacked education, and the boys were taken from their families at a young age.

To begin with, Sparta would abuse the children. In document B it says “[Lycurgus] encouraged them to steal to get their food.” To do this, the boys in the agoges would have to spend nights planning how they were going to steal the food and they had to have spies. If they were caught, they would be beaten and whipped for stealing poorly. This is a weakness because the Spartans did not value their
In document D it says “ The Spartans learned to read and write for purely practical reasons: all other forms of education the banned from the country, books and treatises being included in as much as [foreign teachers].” This is a weakness because there strategies were not strong because they didn’t have the knowledge, they only had the strength. So during battle, they can only fight with strength but, whoever they are battling will have knowledge and strategy. How are we supposed to last long in battle when we are hurt but have no strategy to keep fighting? Finally, Sparta military took 7 year old boys from their family. In document A it says “ At that age, he was removed from his family and, from his eighth to his twenty-first year, he was educated by the state according to military like discipline. This state controlled education, or agoge, occupied a central place in the Spartan system.” This is a weakness because they need to spend time with their family and learn skills they will need after the military. How are these young boys supposed to learn home task that they will need when they are