School Then and Now

School Then and Now

Older children, please take out your hornbooks. Younger children, please recite your numbers. If you were a student in the early days of the United States, that is how your school day might have started.

School was very different then. Not every child went to school. The children who went to school were all in the same room, no matter how old they were. They even shared the same teacher! The children sat in groups on wooden benches. They practiced reading and writing. They did math too.

Today in the United States, all children must go to school. Children are in classrooms with other children who are about the same age. Now children learn how to read and write and do math just like children in earlier times. Children today study many other subjects too. All school children are taught to respect others.

Imagine schools with no books! Most students of long ago had only hornbooks. Hornbooks were not really books at all! A hornbook looked like a wooden paddle. The alphabet and numbers were carved into one side. A sheet of paper was attached to the other side.

Most students today go to schools that are filled with things to help them learn and play. There are books and computers and maps. There are writing pads and pencils and crayons. There are playgrounds and gyms.