Vickie Lord, age 12, ®f Rockford, Illinois, for her question:

Who invented schools?

The history of schools walks hand in hand with the history of civilization. All sorts of people living in many lands started on the rough, rewarding road to civilization    and all of them invented schools to help them along the way. Children of ancient Babylon attended schools more than 5,000 years ago. So did children in China, Egypt and India. Later, older students traveled from afar to study with the philosophers of ancient Greece and other wise teachers. In the civilized countries of 3,000 years ago, it seemed just natural to have both schools and colleges.

There was, however, a big difference between those schools and ours. Right up until a few generations ago, only the children of noblemen and rich parents were permitted to attend school. Though schools were invented in ancient days, the best invention had to wait until modern times. Nowadays we know that every young person has a right to go to school. We also know that the progress of civilization depends upon this.