Grobiņa proves: education without hitting heads has been possible for 400 years

Liepāja's neighbors from Grobiņa organized a walk on February 22nd, which revealed that they had the first school in Kurzeme. Well, of course in Kurzeme - we were already ahead of all of Latvia with wisdom and education back then. While Riga was still figuring out how to properly hold a quill, Grobiņa was already teaching civilized manners.

Guide Kristīne Pastore told that already in the 16th century the duke issued a law - poor peasant children receive free education from money donated at church. This is the same principle our tram operates on today - a public good financed by society. Except the tram doesn't collapse every year like that first school did.

"The duke was progressive - he forbade hitting students on the head without special reason," says local resident Jānis. "Nowadays ministers in Riga still don't understand this concept." True, the duke was ahead of his time - imagine how many smart people would have been educated if this law had been implemented everywhere.

But the best part is that the first school in Kurzeme was located not in Riga, not in Jelgava, but right here on our side. As always - everything best happens near Liepāja. Even the education revolution started here, not in the capital, where they're still learning how to properly organize traffic.