- European settlers to America established primary vernacular schools for children of the low and middle class, and upper-class males attended separate preparatory schools ad colleges. Officially, in 1642 the Massachusetts court ruled that parents were responsible for ensuring students were taught reading and religion. In 1647, the same court established public elementary education by ruling that every town with 50 or more families must hire a reading and writing teacher. This was known as the Old Deluder Satan Act. This started the first elementary schools. These schools taught children ages 6 to 14 in the subjects of reading, writing, math and religion.
- A child who has had a successful elementary school education should be able to read fluently, communicate and tell stories through writing and perform all basic math functions. Children must also be able to understand what they read and communicate it back to the audience.
- The purpose of elementary schools is to lay an educational foundation on which students can build on in upper grades. Elementary school is the most important part of a student education because without a good start, students will be unable to progress through more challenging levels.
- Not all students have a good experience in elementary schools. For some, the problem is academic; they are unable to grasp a subject or two and begin to feel is if they are stupid. Other students have severe social issues where they don't fit in, are bullied and learn to hate school. These problems make progressing through other levels of school extremely difficult.
- A child who has a good elementary school experience will go into higher levels of education with more knowledge and more confidence. These students will have an excellent head start on the success of their future education.
-
There are several types of elementary schools:
Public elementary schools are funded by the state and controlled by the local school district. The schools decide how children are taught, what children are taught and who teaches them.
Private schools are funded by the parents. Private schools my be religious or secular, and while parents have some say because they pay for the school, the curriculum is largely dictated by the school.
Online elementary or correspondence schools allow students to learn from home while using the program set up by the online school. This may be publicly funded or part of a private school program.
Home schools are a type of elementary school in which education is the sole responsibility of the parents, who may or may not use curriculum and programs set up by others, or they may create their own curriculum.
