Denise Ronn, age 15, of Austin, Tex., for her question:
WHEN DID UNIVERSAL PUBLIC SCROOLS START?
It wasn't until the early 1900 that universal public schools became available to large segments of the population. Before that time, education was limited and primarily a part of religious organizations.
By the late 1700s, the nation rather than the church had become the chief symbol that united the people of several Europoan countries as well as the people of the United States. As people shifted greater loyalty to their nations, the church's control over formal schooling declined while that of the state increased.
Modern nationalism, or the idea that a person owes his primary allegiance to the state, first reached its fullest expression in France during and after the French Revolution that ended in 1799. The French came to glorify their nation and culture above ail others.
In 1802 in France, a national system of secondary schools and universities was set up under tight government control. Elementary schools became part of the system in 1833.
However, France did not reform Ito school system along nationalisitc lines nearly so thoroughly as did Prussia and the United States.
In the early 19OOs, what is now Germany consisted of a collection of many independent states. One of these states, the Kingdom of Prussia, relied heavily on developing a school system in which ail children were not only educated but also were trained in patriotic citizenship.
The United States followed with a similar system of schools.
Great Britain was one of the few European countries that did not form a state controlled educational system in the 1800s. In Britian, churches and charitable societies promoted schools more extensively than did the government.
By the early 1900s, public elementary education was free and compulsory in most European countries. Many countries also provided free secondary schooling.
Most colonists who came to America set up the kinds of schools that they had known in Europe. Protestants and Roman Catholics established and supported their own schools. School attendance was not compulsory in the colonies and only about one child in 10 went to school.
Tn 1642, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the largest New Fngland colony, passed a law requiring parents to teach their. children to read
A Massachusetts law passed in 1647 established the first public schools in America. The law required every town with at least 50 families to start an elementary school and every town of 100 families or more to have a Latin grammar school.
After the Revolutionary War, many Americans were deeply concerned with the problem of creating a unified nation. Their attempts to promote unity had two important effects on education. They were the development of standardized textbooks and the building of state public school systems.
Patriotism was only one element the early American educators stressed. They also emphasized religion along with academic subjects. Also, they stressed the fact that good Americans were honest, thrifty, hard working and courageous.