Male Spartan children were sent to military school at the age of six or seven
Girls were trained in their sisterhood, and were taught physical education
Spartans believed in a life of 'discipline, self denial, and simplicity,' and so the purpose of education was, simply, to produce an army. When babies were born, soldiers came to check the child. If it appeared healthy and strong, they would be assigned to a 'brotherhood' or a 'sisterhood,' however if the baby appeared weak and small, the infant would be left to die on a hillside or taken away to be trained as a slave. It was 'survival of the fittest' in Ancient Sparta.
