The Condition of Schools

Abstract

The modern educational movement had its roots in the sixteenth century and the Reformation. This movement led to the founding of grammar schools, which were generally church-supported and were almost solely dedicated to teaching Latin and Greek to the upper classes. Beginning around the middle of the eighteenth century Sunday schools, which were intended for parts of the population untouched by the grammar schools, became popular. The Sunday schools were the first schools to reach large segments of the population. Reading was the primary course of instruction in the Sunday schools, but a few schools dissented from the church and began to teach more secular subjects such as writing and arithmetic (Webb, 1955, p. 16).