Tag: agoge

A New Agoge Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I outlined various things a father can do to prepare his son to be effective in protecting himself and his family in later years.  After all, knowledge is power.

 

Photo by Thomas Xu
Photo by Thomas Xu

However, no man is an expert in everything.  He is either an expert in a handful of things or, like me, someone who knows some on a great many topics but can’t truly be called an expert in anything.

Either way, there’s holes in any man’s knowledge, and it’s virtually impossible not to pass those along to your son.  That’s not a good thing, obviously.

Imagine, if you will, a building; maybe it’s an old barn or a warehouse, but it’s fairly isolated and relatively empty.  You step through the door with your son the first time, and what do you see? Continue reading “A New Agoge Part 2”

A New Agoge: Part 1

Spartan boys, when they reached a certain age, were pried from their mothers and put into a special state-run school called “the agoge” where they were taught to be warriors.  It almost had to be state-run because few parents would subject their children to such brutality.

Photo by Rolands Lakis
Photo by Rolands Lakis

By the time they were finished, they were Spartan warriors, and ready to defend their city from any attacker.

Today, most of us put our children in state-run schools as well…and the results aren’t anything like the agoge.  In fact, they may well be the opposite of the agoge in many ways.  While the Spartan school sought to turn boys into men, in many ways public education seeks to turn boys into girls. Continue reading “A New Agoge: Part 1”