For most kids in the United States, August marks the start of back to school season. They probably aren’t thrilled to start hitting the books again. But taking a look at what American schools were like in the 1800s might convince them how much tougher it could be—and just how good they’ve got it.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, one room schoolhouses were the norm in rural areas. A single teacher taught grades one through eight together. The youngest students—called Abecedarians, because they would learn their ABCs—sat in the front, while the oldest sat in the back. The room was heated by a single wood stove.
2. There was no transportation to get to school.
All those stories you hear about people having to walk five miles to school, uphill both ways, have a bit of truth to them. Most schoolhouses were built to serve students living within four or five miles, which was considered close enough for them to walk.
At some schools, boys and girls entered through separate doors; they were also kept apart for lessons.
4. The school year was much shorter.
When the Department of Education first began gathering data on the subject in the 1869–70 school year [PDF], students attended school for about 132 days (the standard year these days is 180) depending on when they were needed to help their families harvest crops. Attendance was just 59 percent. School days typically started at 9 a.m. and wrapped up at 2 p.m. or 4 p.m., depending on the area; there was one hour for recess and lunch, which was called “nooning."
Forget Trapper Keepers and gel pens. In the 19th and early-20th centuries, students made do with just a slate and some chalk [PDF].
6. Students might help the teacher teach.
In the monitorial or Lancasterian system, the older, stronger students learned lessons directly from the teacher, then taught the younger, weaker students.
Teachers taught subjects including reading, writing, arithmetic, history, grammar, rhetoric, and geography (you can see some 19th century textbooks here). Students would memorize their lessons, and the teacher would bring them to the front of the room as a class to recite what they’d learned—so the teacher could correct them on things like pronunciation on the spot—while the other students continued to work behind them.
8. Teachers sometimes lived with their students’ families.
According to Michael Day at the Country School Association of America, this practice was called “boarding round,” and it often involved the teacher moving from one students’ house to the next as often as every week. As one Wisconsin teacher wrote of boarding with families in 1851:
“I found it very unpleasant, especially during the winter and spring terms, for one week I would board where I would have a comfortable room; the next week my room would be so open that the snow would blow in, and sometimes I would find it on my bed, and also in it. A part of the places where I boarded I had flannel sheets to sleep in; and the others cotton. But the most unpleasant part was being obliged to walk through the snow and water. I suffered much from colds and a cough.”
Sure, stepping out of line in the 1800s and early 1900s could result in detention, suspension, or expulsion, but it could also result in a lashing. According to a document [PDF] outlining student and teacher rules created by the Board of Education in Franklin, Ohio, from 1883,
“Pupils may be detained at any recess or not exceeding fifteen minutes after the hour for closing the afternoon session, when the teacher deems such detention necessary, for the commitment of lessons or for the enforcement of discipline. … Whenever it shall become necessary for teachers to resort to corporal punishment, the same shall not be inflicted upon head or hands of the pupil.”
Not all places had such a rule, though; in other areas, teachers could use a ruler or pointer to lash a student’s knuckles or palms [PDF]. Other punishments included holding a heavy book for more than an hour and writing “I will not …” do a certain activity on the blackboard 100 times.
10. No lunches were provided by the school in the 1800s.
Instead, kids brought their lunches to school in metal pails. Every student drank water from a bucket filled by the older boys using the same tin cup. That began to change in the this early 1900s.
In order to graduate, students would have to pass a final exam. You can see a sample of a typical eighth grade exam in Nebraska circa 1895 in this PDF. It includes questions like “Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications,” “A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?,” and “What are elementary sounds? How classified?”
A version of this story originally ran in 2016; it has been updated for 2023.
In the 1800's the homesteaders did not have schools as nice as we have today. They had dirt floors, and rough plank desks or benches. The building was quite small, and the ceiling, walls, and roof were all made with sod, straw, and mud. Straw was obviously more limp and didn't last very long.
In the 1800's the homesteaders did not have schools as nice as we have today. They had dirt floors, and rough plank desks or benches. The building was quite small, and the ceiling, walls, and roof were all made with sod, straw, and mud. Straw was obviously more limp and didn't last very long.
Perhaps one of the most commonly noted differences between schools throughout the recent decades has been the use of technology. Tech is practically the whole basis for learning at Westfield, but according to teachers, computer labs were only just starting to be introduced when they were in school.
The school day usually started at 9 a.m. and ended around 2 p.m. Remember there had to be time for the children to walk to and from school. Some schools had a big chalkboard at the front and if you were lucky, you had a school desk that had an inkwell for you to use ink to write on paper when it was available.
In the United States, normal schools were developed and built primarily to train elementary-level teachers for the public schools. The term “normal school” is based on the French école normale, a sixteenth-century model school with model classrooms where model teaching practices were taught to teacher candidates.
What did the public education reform movement of the 1800s accomplish? Public education reform of the 1800s established the public, common school, often a one-roomed school funded by local taxes, and was open to all white children.
Students today would be surprised at the sparseness of the classrooms 100 years ago—there were many fewer books and what we today consider school supplies. Rather than markers, scissors, glue sticks, paper, computers, and more, students in the early twentieth century probably had only a slate and chalk.
In the 1840s, rural schools were not large buildings with many small classrooms like most schools today. Schools were small and had only one teacher. These one-room schools did not have computers, televisions, or even indoor bathrooms!
Previously, individual teachers had exercised a great degree of control over the content of their courses, and conditions varied greatly from one schoolroom to the next; in the 1850s a uniform course of study was introduced, along with new officials—school principals and city, county, and state superintendents—to ...
The light meal homesteaders' children carried to school was called “lunch.” They ate lots of sandwiches, but what kind of sandwiches? They might have had cornbread and syrup, or bread and lard, maybe with a little sugar, or bread and bacon.
Before the Victorian era, children as young as 6 or 8 years old might work in a mill or factory, they might run errands and make deliveries for a store keeper, they may be apprenticed to a skilled craftsman or woman, or they could be hired out as a servant.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, very few girls received an education and those who had the option attended dame schools, which started in the eighteenth century and focused on basic literacy.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, one room schoolhouses were the norm in rural areas. A single teacher taught grades one through eight together. The youngest students—called Abecedarians, because they would learn their ABCs—sat in the front, while the oldest sat in the back.
Most fruits and vegetables were grown on the farmstead, and families processed meats such as poultry, beef, and pork. People had seasonal diets. In the spring and summer months, they ate many more fruits and vegetables than they did in the fall and winter.
Corporal punishment was allowed as long as the teacher did not inflict pain upon the head or hands. Not all places had this rule though and rulers or pointers were used to lash student's knuckles or palms. Other discipline procedures included making the child hold a heavy book for more than an hour.
Before the Victorian era, children as young as 6 or 8 years old might work in a mill or factory, they might run errands and make deliveries for a store keeper, they may be apprenticed to a skilled craftsman or woman, or they could be hired out as a servant.
During the 1800s, there were not that many classrooms in the United States. the classrooms were just one-room schools. The schools ran for only 6 months and the other six months the students were off. The problem was that only the rich could afford to send their kids to school at that time.
Introduction: My name is Terrell Hackett, I am a gleaming, brainy, courageous, helpful, healthy, cooperative, graceful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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