Spartan and Athenian
citizenship. From Sparta comes the thought of an education which shall
be controlled by the State from birth; while Athens adds the aesthetical
aspects to those purely physical.

In his scheme he divided the people into the following classes:--

1. The _common people_. They should be allowed to rise, but no education
is provided for them in his scheme.

2. The _guardians_ or _citizens_, who shall study music and gymnastics.
Music includes literature, that is, human culture as distinguished from
scientific knowledge. Writing and arithmetic are also included under
music, the latter not being studied for practical purposes, but to
develop the reason.

3. The _rulers_, who, in addition to the preceding subjects, shall study
geometry, astronomy, rhetoric, and philosophy.

The State is to have absolute control of every citizen; it shall arrange
marriages, destroy weak and unpromising children, and remove the healthy
babes at birth to public nurseries, where mothers may care for the
children in common, but will not recognize or take special interest in
their own children. Boys and girls are to be educated alike. Great care
is to be taken that nothing mean or vile shall be shown to children;
their environments shall be beautiful and ennobling, though simple.

From birth to seven years of age the child is to have plenty of physical
exercise. He shall hear fairy tales and selections from the poets, but
careful censorship must be placed on everything presented to him.
Suitable playthings are to be provided, precaution taken against fear of
darkness, and by gentleness combined with firmness a manly spirit is to
be produced. Beauty of mind and body are to be harmoniously united.

From seven to thirteen intellectual as well as physical activity is
required.

The special education begins at twenty by the selection of the most
promising youths. At thirty another selection of those able to continue
their education five years more is made.

Higher mathematics, astronomy, harmony, and science constitute the work
of the first ten years, and philosophical study that of the last five.
Fifteen years then are to be given to the service of the State, after
which, at fifty, the student may return to the study of philosophy for
the remainder of his life.

Education is to be compulsory, as the child belongs to the State and not
to the parent.

Plato gave predominance to intellectual rather than to physical culture