While the outfits, books, bags and hairstyles may have changed, the excitement surrounding going back to school, making new friends and learning new things seems timeless.
Take a look at these lovely photos from HuffPost to see how the first day of school has changed from the past century.
 |
| A young boy and girl on the way to school for the start of a new term in the 1920s |
 |
| A girl's first day of school in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, circa 1921 |
 |
| Japanese children in traditional garb start school in California in 1927 |
 |
| A 5-year-old girl shows off her books after her first day of kindergarten, circa 1929 |
 |
| A mother takes her daughter by the hand as they head to school in the late 1920s or early 1930s |
 |
| A young Australian boy stares into a classroom already full of students, circa 1930 |
 |
| Children on their way home from school, with book bags strapped on their backs, after the first day of classes in Germany, circa 1930 |
 |
| Parents and their children are seen outside a school in Tokyo in the early 20th century |
 |
| Students in France greet a photographer at the start of a new term by shaking their schoolbags in 1932 |
 |
| During World War II, Parisian students line up a courtyard on the first day of classes |
 |
| A little boy in Paris says goodbye to his mother outside a school in September 1945 |
 |
| As their instruction begins in 1948, students at the Lucy D. Anthony school examine a small turtle |
 |
| In 1948, a young girl shares a moment with her mother outside the Lucy D. Anthony school in Madison, New Jersey |
 |
| Joyce Payne and Vincent Baker have fun depicting their teacher at a school in New York’s Harlem community on Sep. 13, 1948 |
 |
| Nap-time on the first day in 1949 |
 |
| Wide-eyed children listening to fairy-tales on their first school day in 1949 |
 |
| Children getting to know their new teacher, circa 1950 |
 |
| Students eagerly vie to be called on at a New York school, circa 1950 |
 |
| Teacher Agnes Bolton stands in the schoolhouse door on the first day of classes for her only pupil, Jimmy MacLellan, in Scotland, circa 1950 |
 |
| Five-year-old Howard Crafter has a tough time adjusting at the St. Nicholas County school, circa 1952 |
 |
| Richard Sharp on his first day at the St. Nicholas County Primary School in Loughton, England, circa 1952 |
 |
| Children hard at work on Sept. 15, 1959 |
 |
| Delores York heads off for her first day at a previously all-white school in September 1960 in Arkansas |
 |
| Two brothers about to start the new school year, circa 1964 |
 |
| Mary Lynch, an assistant principal at a school in Boston’s Roxbury community, leads first graders to a school in the city's North End on Sept. 6, 1967. Operation Exodus, a voluntary busing program organized by Roxbury parents, transported students from overcrowded schools in predominantly black neighborhoods to schools in predominantly white neighborhoods that had vacant seats |
 |
| Children walk up a flight of stairs to attend a newly desegregated school in Berkeley, California, 1968 |
 |
| Jim Hard (left) of Framingham, Massachusetts, gets acquainted with Joseph Reis of the Roxbury neighborhood at the Trotter School in Boston on Sept. 3, 1969 |
 |
| Canadian kindergarten teacher Trisha Langley teaching her first lessons on Sept. 7, 1971 |
 |
| Students at the Mary E. Curley School in Boston on Sept. 8, 1975 |
 |
| Maranda Francisco seems taken aback by a classmate’s antics on Sept. 20, 1987 |
 |
| Students line up at the Side Creek Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado, on Aug. 11, 1987 |
 |
| Schools kids arrive at Ellis Elementary School in Denver on Aug. 31, 1988 |
 |
| Five-year-old Dylan O’ Sullivan appears determined to make it a good year as he heads into class in Denver on Aug. 30, 1989 |