During primary school, younger boys learned calisthenics and often were taught how to play ball games, while older boys were taught more military-type activities, such as running, boxing, and wrestling. All Athenian boys were expected to read heavily, however, as literature played a very important part in their education. The national epic poems, Homer's Illiad and Odyssey, were mandatory teaching in all Athenian elementary schools. The boys were also taught how to play the lyre, sing, and do arithmetic. The emphasis of Athenian education was to prepare well-rounded citizens capable of performing whatever task was asked of them.(1)

At age 14, poorer boys usually stopped going to school and began apprenticeships at a trade. Boys from families that could afford it continued to remain in school for four more years. At age 18, regardless of social status, all Athenian boys were required to attend military school for two years, after which they were free to live out their lives as they saw fit. There were no permanent school for higher education until 390 BC, when teachers like Aristotle began establishing academies for higher learning.(3)