Jennifer Kincaid, age 11, of Dodge City, Kan., for her question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STARTED?
The first elementary schools started in ancient days in Greece and Rome. The schools taught reading, writing and the use of numbers, but only a small number of students attended.
In the Middle Ages, parish priests and church schools started to give basic education in Latin to small groups of boys. The first public elementary schools appeared in Germany in the 1500s during the Reformation.
After 1800, France, Germany, Great Britain and other European countries developed national systems of elementary schools.
The first elementary schools in the United States appeared shortly after the first colonists landed in New England. A Massachusetts law of 1642 ordered that children should be taught to read.
Another Massachusetts law in 1647 required that every town of 50 or more householders should establish a school to teach reading and writing. Early schools rarely taught more than reading, writing and arithemtic.
The Land ordinance of 1785 dealt with the organization of new lands in the West. It provided that one section of land in each new township should be used to establish schools.
The federal government left the actual establishment of schools to the states. In 1816, the constitution of the new state of Indiana directed the legislature to establish a free public school system. Other states followed Indiana's example.
Pennsylvania passed its Free School Act in 1834. This law allowed local towns and districts in Pennsylvania to join a state public school system. Taxes supported the new public elementary schools.
Massachusetts passed the first state compulsory school attendance law in 1852. This law required all children from eight to 14 to spend at least 12 weeks a year in school.
After 1918, every state had a system of public elementary schools and attendance laws. Many Southern states modified their attendance laws after 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
During the mid 1800s, elementary school education began to change. Studies came to include many new subjects such as art, geography, history, music and science. Teachers started to receive more careful training, often through state teachers' colleges.
In 1847, the Quincy Grammar School in Quincy, mass., became the first public school to have a complete system of separate grades for the children.
In 1848, Quincy's new building became the first to have a separate room for each grade. The elementary schools gradually came to place less emphasis on memorizing and drill and more on understanding and solving problems.
Today elementary schools develop the child's physical, social and mental abilities.