This state was the last to create a public kindergarten program. Before 1982, only 45 percent of Mississippi children who began first grade finished the twelfth grade.
President Johnson's "War on Poverty" led to the Head Start program — designed to help communities meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children.
Followers of Fröbel established a college of teacher education in London to continue his traditions.
Friedrich Fröbel coined the word kindergarten for the play and activity institute he had founded for young children.