How Did Sparta's Strengths Outweigh Their Weaknesses

Sparta’s weaknesses outweigh their strengths because they are educated under a harsh, rigorous discipline, the boys are ripped away from their families without a choice, and because only practical reading and writing were taught; all other education was banned. The boys who were training to become warriors, were held under a completely harsh discipline. They were forced to go without shoes to harden their feet which would cause serious pain and suffering as they had to climb across rocks, mountains, etc. Document B states, “...Lycurgus required them to harden their feet by going without shoes.” This rule caused a lot of pain for little culmination. The boys in training were also only given a moderate amount of food to train them for when there was no food around. This was training them

“A Spartan father had no right to decide whether to rear his newly born son or not.” (Document A) If his son was healthy, he would be sent away at seven years old to train for the military he would soon be apart of. If his son was not healthy, he would be left outside to die. This puts strain on a family, causes grief for the siblings, and is very distressing for the mother. Another disadvantage of Sparta's military is that the boys only learned reading and writing to a certain extent, since their military was their main priority. According to Document D, “The Spartans learned to read and write for purely practical reasons: but all other forms of education they banned from the country,...” If an man wasn’t interested in fighting and wanted a strong education, he was simply out of luck since in Sparta, killing others was more important than schooling. The men in Sparta had no choice of their future. Overall, Sparta’s weaknesses outweigh their strengths because they are under a harsh discipline, they are taken from their families without a choice, and education was not a main