Marguerite Ryan, age 13, of Somerville, Mass., for her question:

When Were schools first founded?

The children of our cavemen ancestors were taught skills and other necessary know how by their parents. As societies advanced, the task of teaching the boys hunting and proper tribal behavior was taken over by elders and the girls were instructed by wise women of the tribe. The first real schools, as we know them started some 5,000 years ago in perhaps India, Babylon and other settled cultures of the Middle East.

These first schools followed the invention of writing and they were founded to teach reading and writing to the young. Some of the instructors were the great scholars of their day. Most of them were priests and Wise Men and for ages the only pupils were the children of kings and noblemen. Many ordinary children learned trades from skilled craftsmen, but they did not attend schools. The first public schools for the children of all citizens were founded in the democratic city state of ancient Greece. They were started between 300 and 200 B.C.