page_title: Boston Latin School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Boston Latin School / History
context_page_description: The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in America and the oldest existing school in the United States. The Boston Latin School was a bastion for educating the sons of the Boston "Brahmin" elite, resulting in the school claiming many prominent New Englanders as alumni. Its curriculum follows that of the 18th century Latin school movement, which holds the classics to be the basis of an educated mind. Four years of Latin are mandatory for all pupils who enter the school in the 7th grade, three years for those who enter in the 9th grade.
context_section_description: Boston Latin School was founded on April 23, 1635 by the Town of Boston. The school was modeled after the Free Grammar School of Boston in England under the influence of Reverend John Cotton. It was intended to educate young men of all social classes in the classics. The school was initially funded by donations and land rentals rather than by taxes.  A school established in nearby Dedham was the first tax-supported public school.
  Latin is the mother of modern Romance languages and was an educational priority in the 17th century.  The ability to read at least Cicero and Virgil was a requirement of all colonial colleges, and to write and speak Latin in verse and prose was the first of the Harvard laws of 1642.  Boston Latin prepared many students for admission to Harvard, with a total of seven years devoted to the classics.  However, most graduates of Boston Latin did not go on to college, since business and professions did not require college training.
  In May 2009, Boston Latin School closed for one week due to the H1N1 outbreak.
  In 2015, Boston Latin School had 2,400 pupils drawn from Boston. It has produced four Harvard University presidents, four Massachusetts governors, and five signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin and Louis Farrakhan are among its well-known dropouts.
  The School began as the South Grammar School and was specifically modeled after the Boston Grammar School in Lincolnshire, England.
  The Latin School admitted only male students and hired only male teachers from its founding in 1635 into the 19th century. Helen Magill White was the school's first female graduate and the first American woman to earn a doctorate. Magill White was the only female pupil at the school when she attended. The Girls' Latin School was founded in 1877, and Boston Latin admitted its first co-educational class in 1972.
  The school appointed Marie Frisardi Cleary and Juanita Ponte as the first two women in its academic faculty in 1967. Cornelia Kelley was the school's first female headmaster, serving from 1998 until her retirement in 2007, after which Lynne Mooney Teta became headmaster. In 2016, Mooney Teta resigned amid a federal probe into racially charged incidents at the school. In 2017, Rachel Skerritt became the first person of color to serve as headmaster.
  A cadet corps was founded during the American Civil War; it was disbanded in the early 1960s.
caption: Hall of the BLS School House on Bedford Street, 1844–1881
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