Hey there! Have you ever thought about what school means to you? Maybe you picture classrooms, desks, or even a playground. But have you ever thought about a school shaped like a giant cat? In Germany, there’s a kindergarten that looks just like a big white cat! The door is the cat’s mouth, and kids can slide down its long tail. How cool is that?
Our friend Marco is curious about who invented school. It’s a tricky question because school can be different for everyone. Some kids learn in classrooms, others at home, and some even in the forest, like kids in Denmark. But no matter where it happens, school is all about learning.
Long ago, there were no schools. Kids learned important skills like hunting and building shelters from grownups in their community. But as time went on, people realized that some grownups were better at teaching certain things. So, they started having experts teach groups of kids. This was the beginning of schools!
One of the first places to have schools was ancient Egypt. They had special schools called scribe schools where kids learned to write. Writing was super hard back then, so only a few kids got to go to these schools. In ancient China, boys went to city schools to learn math, poetry, and even how to use bows and arrows.
In ancient Greece, boys started school at age seven and learned things like math, reading, and wrestling. But back then, only boys and rich kids could go to school, which wasn’t very fair.
Over time, people like Catharine Beecher and Horace Mann worked hard to make school fair for everyone. Catharine thought girls should go to school and become teachers. Horace believed all kids should go to school, no matter how rich or poor they were.
Even though they tried hard, it wasn’t always easy. For a long time, Black students in America couldn’t go to the same schools as white students. But brave kids like Ruby Bridges helped change that. She was the first Black girl to go to an all-white school in the south, even when many people didn’t want her to.
Thanks to people like Ruby, schools have become better, but there’s always room for improvement. Schools are still growing and changing every day. If you could make school better, what would you do?
That’s all for now! Stay curious and keep learning. There are so many mysteries to explore. See you next time!
Design Your Dream School: Imagine you could create your own school. What would it look like? Would it be shaped like an animal, a spaceship, or something else? Draw a picture of your dream school and think about what fun and exciting things you would include. Share your drawing with your friends or family and explain why you chose that design.
School Around the World: With the help of a parent or teacher, find pictures or videos of schools from different countries. Notice how they are similar or different from your school. Discuss with your classmates or family what you like about these schools and what you might want to have in your own school.
Interview a Teacher: Ask a teacher or a grownup about their favorite school memory. What was their school like when they were your age? What subjects did they enjoy learning? Write down their answers and share them with your class. You might discover some interesting differences and similarities!
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Danni. When you think of school, what comes to mind? Do you think of classrooms or desks? Maybe a playground? What about cats? (cat meowing) (Danni chuckles) That’s what these kids in Germany picture when they think of school. That’s because their kindergarten is built like a giant white cat. Yeah. (chuckles) Check this out. See how its mouth is the door? Kids can even slide down its long tail. So cool.
Someone named Marco is curious about school. Let’s give Marco a call now. (phone ringing) – Hi, Danni. – Hi, Marco. – I have a question for you. Who invented school? – Ooh, that’s a great question. And it’s kind of a hard one to answer because school means different things to different people. Some kids have school in a classroom, while other kids do school at home. Some kids even have school in the forest each day, like these kids in Denmark. As long as you’re there to spend time each day learning, it’s school.
But where did the idea of school come from anyway? Hmm, someone had to think it up, right? Before humans actually got the idea to gather groups of kids together each day to learn, schools didn’t exist. Now, before you think the earliest kids had it easy and that they just hung out with their friends all day, it’s important to remember it was really hard to be a kid back then. There were no stores where you could buy things that you need, and no buildings to live in. And there were wild animals that could attack at any time. Kids needed to learn how to hunt and fish, and build safe shelters so they could survive. But there were no schools to teach them. So, for thousands of years, someone in their community would just teach them everything they needed to know one-on-one. And it worked.
Which makes me think, if that way of teaching worked, why did we need to invent schools in the first place? I mean, couldn’t grownups just keep teaching kids at home? Before we go on, I’m curious. What do you think? Why was school invented? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? I’m not sure how you answered, but you may have guessed that school was invented because some of the grownups didn’t know how to teach their kids certain things. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, grownups are smart, but they don’t know everything. What if most of the grownups in your community were not good at fishing, but your friend’s mom could catch a lot of fish with her eyes closed? It would make sense to have your friend’s mom teach fishing to the rest of the community, right? So, that’s what people started doing. Instead of teaching kids one by one, they began to have experts in fishing or hunting, or shelter-building teach groups of kids what they needed to learn. And that worked really well.
So well that people began to build actual places you could go to just for learning, like the ancient Egyptians. This is ancient Egyptian writing. Looks kind of confusing, doesn’t it? Well, writing in Egypt was really hard to learn. So hard that barely anyone in Egypt knew how to do it. But if you were a boy from a really rich family, you might be lucky enough to go to a scribe school to learn how to write. Scribe schools were some of the first schools to meet in an actual building. Kids who went to these special writing schools would spend hours each day copying symbols into clay tablets or paper made from leaves.
But the Egyptians weren’t the only ones to invent school. In ancient China, boys whose parents were relatives or friends of the emperor went to special city schools to learn math, poetry, and even how to respect their grandparents. Oh, and they spent part of each day learning how to use bows and arrows. Over time, schools began popping up everywhere, like in ancient Greece, where boys started school at age seven and learned things like math, reading, writing, and even wrestling. And school was hardly ever free. So a lot of kids couldn’t afford to go.
Now, schools have changed a lot since back then. And that’s a good thing because, well, did you notice anything unfair about these ancient schools? Yeah. Only boys, only rich people. Shouldn’t everyone be allowed to go to school? Over time, a lot of people began to think so, including Catharine Beecher. She thought that girls should be allowed to go to school and that they should be teachers too, so she started special schools where girls could learn to teach. And she wasn’t the only one. This is Horace Mann. He thought that every kid should be able to go to school no matter how rich or poor you were, and he helped make laws to make this possible.
But even though people like Horace Mann and Catharine Beecher tried hard to make things more fair, they weren’t totally successful. For example, for a long time, there were a lot of places in America where Black students were not allowed to go to the same school that white students went to. It wasn’t until a brave six-year-old named Ruby Bridges walked up the steps of William Frantz Elementary School that began to change. When the laws in America changed, Ruby was the first Black girl to go to an all-white school in the south, even though a lot of people didn’t want that to happen.
People like these helped make our schools a lot better, but they didn’t actually invent the idea all by themselves. A lot of people invented school, like the earliest humans who taught groups of kids how to survive. And the ancient Egyptians and Chinese who built some of the first school buildings. And even kids, like Ruby Bridges, who helped make school more fair for everyone. We still have a lot of work to do to make school the best it can be. But the good thing is the idea of school is still growing and being invented every day.
Which makes me think, if it was up to you, how would you make school better? (Danni chuckles) That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks Marco for asking it. Now, for the next episode, we reached into our question jar and picked out three questions sent into us that we’re thinking about answering next. When this video’s done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from who invented umbrellas, why do people get toothaches, or do any plants eat animals? So, submit your vote when the video’s over. We want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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