lessons

About the time of Elizabeth's birth, Massachusetts passed a law requiring parents to teach their children to read. In 1647, the colony passed the first law in America requiring communities to establish public schools. The law states that every town with at least 50 families must start an elementary school and every town of at least 100 families must have a Latin grammar school. Colonial elementary schools teach religion, spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Grammar schools prepare mainly boys for college. They offer lessons in religion, Latin and Greek, English composition, geography, and mathematics.