The state military socialism of Sparta made no headway in more democratic Attica. The citizens were too individualistic, and did their own thinking too well to permit the establishment of any such plan. While education was a necessity for citizenship, and the degree could not be obtained without it, the State nevertheless left every citizen free to make his own arrangements for the education of his sons, or to omit such education if he saw fit. Only instruction in reading, writing, music, and gymnastics were required. If family pride, and the sense of obligation of a parent and a citizen were not sufficient to force the father to educate his son, the son was then by law freed from the necessity of supporting his father in his old age. The State supervised education, but did not establish it. The teachers were private teachers, and derived their livelihood from fees. These naturally varied much with the kind of teacher and the wealth of the parent, much as private lessons in music or dancing do to-day. As was common in antiquity, the teachers occupied but a low social position (R. 5), and only in the higher schools of Athens was their standing of any importance. Greek literature contains many passages which show the low social status of the schoolmaster. [10] Schools were open from dawn to dark. The school discipline was severe, the rod being freely used both in the school and in the home. There were no Saturday and Sunday holidays or long vacations, such as we know, but about ninety festival and other state holidays served to break the continuity of instruction (R. 3). The schoolrooms were provided by the teachers, and were wholly lacking in teaching equipment, in any modern sense of the term. However, but little was needed. The instruction was largely individual instruction, the boy coming, usually in charge of an old slave known as a _pedagogue_, to receive or recite his lessons. The teaching process was essentially a telling and a learning-by-heart procedure. For the earlier years there were two schools which boys attended--the music and literary school, and a school for physical training. Boys probably spent part of the day at one school and part at the other, though this is not certain. They may have attended the two schools on alternate days. From sixteen to eighteen, if his parents were able, the boy attended a state-supported _gymnasium_, where an advanced type of physical training was given. As this was preparatory for the next two years of army service, the _gymnasia_ were supported by the State more as preparedness measures than as educational institutions, though they partook of the nature of both. [Illustration: FIG. 5. A GREEK BOY]