Primary education

===History of elementary education in Europe===
During Greek and Roman times, boys were educated by their mothers until the age of seven, then according to the culture of their location and times, would start formal education. In [[Agoge#Structure|Sparta]] until twelve, it would be at a military academy building up physical fitness and combat skills, but also reading, writing and arithmetic<ref name="Gutek1994">{{cite book|author=Gerald L. Gutek|title=A History of the Western Educational Experience: Second Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Db35CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA203|date=14 December 1994|publisher=Waveland Press|isbn=978-1-4786-3010-4|page=203|access-date=16 April 2019|archive-date=2 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902064635/https://books.google.com/books?id=Db35CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA203|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|25}} while in [[Athens]] the emphasis would be on understanding the laws of the [[polis]], reading, writing, arithmetic and music with gymnastics and athletics,<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|29,30}} and learning the moral stories of Homer. Girls received all their education at home. In Rome the primary school was called the [[Ludus (ancient Rome)|''ludus'']]; the curriculum developed over the centuries featuring the learning of both Latin and Greek. In AD 94, [[Quintilian]] published the systematic educational work, ''[[Institutio Oratoria]]''.<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|68}} He distinguished between teaching and learning, and that a child aged between 7 and 14 learned by sense experience, learns to form ideas, develops language and memory. He recommended that teachers should motivate their pupils by making the teaching interesting, rather than by [[School corporal punishment|corporal punishment]].<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|70}} The [[trivium]] (grammar, rhetoric and logic) and [[quadrivium]] (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music) were legacies of the Roman curriculum.<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|88}}

====The medieval church and education in Europe====
[[File:Jules-Alexis Muenier - La Leçon de catéchisme.jpg|thumb|''The Catechism Lesson'' by [[Jules-Alexis Muenier|Jules-Alexis Meunier]]]]
As the Roman influence waned, the great [[cathedral school]]s were established to provide a source of [[chorister]]s and clergy. [[The King's School, Canterbury|Kings School, Canterbury]] dates from 597. The [[Council of Rome]] in 853 specified that each [[parish]] should provide elementary education: religious ritual but also reading and writing Latin.<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|81}} 
The purpose of education was to explain salvation, not social change. The church had a monopoly on education; the feudal lords concurred and allowed their sons to be educated at the few church schools. The economy in most of Europe was agrarian and the children of serfs started work as soon as they were able. It was accepted as a truth by Christians that man was created by God in the image of [[Adam]] with his share of [[original sin]] and that a boy was born sinful. Therefore, only the teachings of the church and the [[sacrament]]s could redeem him.<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|77,85}} The parishes provided elementary education- but had no requirement to provide it to every child. The need was to produce priests, and in a stable kingdom such as that of [[Charlemagne]], administrators with elementary writing skills in Latin and the arithmetic needed to collect taxes and administer them. [[Alcuin]] (735–804) developed teaching material that was based on the [[catechesis|catechetical method]]- repeating and memorizing questions and answers, although often understanding the information was not important. These skills were also needed in the great abbeys such as [[Cluny]]. There was a divergence between the needs of town and monasteries and we see the development of the parish, chantry, monastic, and cathedral schools. With the entry of women into church life, convents were established, and with them convent schools. Girls entered at the age of eight and were taught Latin grammar, religious doctrine, and music, and the women's arts of spinning, weaving, tapestry, painting, and embroidery.<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|84}} [[Bede]] entered the [[monastic school]] at [[Jarrow]] at the age of seven and became a writer and historian. [[Chantry|Chantry school]]s were the result of charitable donations and educated the poor. Beginning in 804, parishes were obliged to have a school, and cathedrals had to establish [[cathedral schools|schools]] after the [[Lateran Council]] of 1179. Elementary education was mainly to teach sufficient Latin for the trivium and the quadrivium that formed the basis of the secondary curriculum.<ref name=black>{{cite journal |last1=Black |first1=Robert |title=Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History |date=2001 |page=489 |issn=1530-9169}}</ref>

====Renaissance====
{{further|List of oldest schools}}
[[File:Priscianus della Robbia OPA Florence.jpg|thumb|Priscian]]

While Humanism had a great change on the secondary curriculum, the primary curriculum was unaffected.<ref name=black/> It was believed that by studying the works of the greats, ancients who had governed empires, one became fit to succeed in any field. Renaissance boys from the age of five learned Latin grammar using the same books as the Roman child. There were the grammars of [[Aelius Donatus|Donatus]] and [[Priscian]] followed by ''[[Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation)|Caesar's Commentaries]]''<!--intentional link to DAB page--> and then [[St Jerome]]'s Latin [[Vulgate]].<ref name="Bartlett">{{cite web |last1=Bertlett |first1=Kenneth |title=The Italian Renaissance - The Education and Learning During the Renaissance |url=https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/education-in-the-renaissance/ |website=The Great Courses Daily |access-date=19 April 2019 |location=University of Toronto |date=15 December 2016 |archive-date=19 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419082615/https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/education-in-the-renaissance/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Wealthy boys were educated by tutors. Others were educated in schools attached to the parishes, cathedrals, or abbeys. From the 13th century, wealthy merchants endowed money for priests to "establish as a school to teach grammar". These early grammar schools were to teach basic, or elementary grammar, to boys. No age limit was specified. Early examples in England included [[Lancaster Royal Grammar School]], [[Royal Latin School]], Buckingham, and [[Stockport Grammar School]]. The [[Reformation]] and the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] (1548) disrupted the funding of many schools. The schools petitioned the King, [[Edward VI]], for an endowment. Examples of schools receiving endowments are [[King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth]], [[Norwich School|King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich]] and [[King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon]], where [[William Shakespeare]] was thought to be a pupil from the age of 7 to 14.

====Paupers and the poor====
Though the Grammar schools were set up to deliver elementary education, they did require their entrants to have certain skills on admission. In particular, they expected them to be able to read and write in the vernacular. There was a need for something more basic.<ref name=WCEd>{{cite book |title=The Education of the Working Classes to 1870 {{!}} British History Online |date=1969 |location=London |pages=240 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp213-240 |access-date=22 April 2019 |archive-date=22 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422231650/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp213-240 |url-status=live }}</ref>

This was addressed by [[Dame school]]s, then [[charity school]]s, often set up by the churches ([[Church of England school|C of E schools]]), Bell's [[British and Foreign School Society|British School]]s and 
Joseph Lancaster's [[National school (England and Wales)|National School]]s.<ref name=WCEd/> <!--

Sunday School movement [[Robert Raikes]]
[[Ragged Schools]] -->

====Educational philosophies====
{{main|Learning theory (education)}}
[[File:Het Hoogeland openluchtmuseum in Warffum, oud klaslokaal.jpg|thumb|Classroom from 1910 in a late 19 century elementary school, Het Hoogeland Openluchtmuseum]]

Certain movements in education had relevance in all of Europe and its diverging colonies. The Americans were interested in the thoughts of [[Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi|Pestalozzi]], [[Monitorial System|Joseph Lancaster]], [[New Lanark|Owen]]<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|208}} and the [[Prussian education system|Prussian school]]s.<ref name="Gutek1994"/>{{rp|4}}