Find Denver Public Schools Records From 40 Years Ago

This Is What School Was Like 100 Years Ago

Your great- (or great-great) grandparents really did have to walk five miles in the snow to get to school! Here's how American childhood education has evolved since the 19th and early 20th centuries.

A young spinner being watched by the overseer at Yazoo City Yarn Mills. Underwood Archives/REX/Shutterstock

School often played second-fiddle to work

Today's child-labor laws would be unthinkable to early American families. With the exception of professional or fairly wealthy households, parents often couldn't make ends meet without children working the family farms, pitching in at family businesses, or getting jobs in mills, mines, or factories outside the home. Some of those jobs are part of the reason why the school year doesn't start in January.

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student traveling on horse to school vintage Courtesy Louise Basse/Reminisce

Some students had to travel very far to school

Louise Basse and her horse, Jane, navigated seven fields and gates to get to school in Goldendale, Washington, in the early 1900s. Check out these facts that will completely warp your perception of time.

Young African American men receiving instruction Everett/Shutterstock

School was segregated

The turn of the century was still long before the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, and school still had a long way to go in terms of offering equal opportunities for all students. According to encyclopedia.com, in 1910, the vast majority of African American students still lived in the South, where schools were far poorer than in the North. Average school years in the South were only 121 days, and there were no attendance laws. Black teachers' salaries were dismally low, and public secondary schools for African American students were few and far between. Don't miss these "facts" about the civil rights movement that actually aren't true.

Catholic Elementary School Class Portrait, USA, circa 1930 Glasshouse Images/Shutterstock

Not all children went to school

At the turn of the century, only 51 percent of children age five to 19 even went to school. By 1910, the number had grown to a whopping 59 percent, per the National Center for Education Statistics. Numbers were approximately 20 percent lower for non-white students. And most of those students only attended school for a few years to learn basic English and math. In 1900, only 11 percent of high school-age children were enrolled in school at all. These 14 everyday objects looked pretty different 100 years ago, too.

school uniform vintage Courtesy Clarice Winters/Reminisce

Students had specific attire that they would wear to school

In 1908, Clarice Winters' mother, Marjorie Zimmerman (back row, center), was in her last year at Bellview School in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. See the fashion trends that were popular 100 years ago.

class of immigrants in a night school Universal History Archive/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

Night school wasn't just for adults

Child labor on farms and in cities was so common in the late 1800s and early 1900s that many states passed laws requiring largish cities to provide evening elementary and high-school education. One school official said at the time that parents were happy that their kids could finally get a basic education without quitting the farm work or outside jobs that they had during the day. Learn what women weren't allowed to do only 100 years ago.

school sports uniform vintage Courtesy Ruth Nuhfer/Reminisce

They had school sports, but the uniforms were very different

The Emlenton (Pennsylvania) High School girls' basketball team posed in 1915 in their game attire. Ruth Nuhfer says her mother, Blanche (Grieff) Barnes, is on the right. As education continues to evolve, see the things your children will be learning in school that you never did.

one room schoolhouse vintage Courtesy Janet Duebner/Reminisce

Many schools only had one room

Renata Nelesen and her brother Harold attended this one-room parochial school near Marshfield, Wisconsin, and their father was the teacher, says Renata's daughter, Janet Duebner of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. He was also pastor of the church and posed with his students for this photo in 1913. Being in one room definitely wouldn't fly today especially during the pandemic. Check out what you may not see in schools anymore after coronavirus.

debate team Courtesy Virla Jean Lynk/Reminisce

There was still debate team

Virla Jean (seated at left) was proud of her accomplishments as part of the Farmington (Michigan) High School debate team in 1929. What an extracurricular can do for students is just one of the 33 things your child's teacher wants you to know.

school teacher's desk with books, slate, chalk, bell and strap Peter Carroll/imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock

Punishment was hands-on

Misbehaving students in the 1800s and 1900s could get detention or be suspended or expelled from school. But they were also regularly spanked, paddled, lashed, or had palms or knuckles rapped with a ruler. Although corporal punishment in schools is outlawed in most of the United States today, it's legal in 19 mostly southern states including Louisiana, Georgia, and Arkansas.

Even preschoolers in these regions can be subject to spanking and swatting in some areas: A national report from the 2015 to '16 school year shows that about 1,500 young children received physical punishment in preschool or pre-K, mostly at schools in Texas and Oklahoma. Good thing nursing hasn't changed all that much. See what nursing looked like 100 years ago.

class size vintage Courtesy Magdalene Becker/Reminisce

Class sizes were around 20

Magdalene Becker started teaching in 1927 near Murray, Wisconsin. Her first class had 21 students.

vintage little school girl Courtesy Martha Dudley/Reminisce

Many students were eager to start learning

Martha Dudley was eager to start school in 1926. That's her little brother O.R. and sister Lillie Ruth waving in the background.

vintage little school girl Courtesy Alice Marks/Reminisce

Kids just starting school were afraid to leave their parents

Alice Marks looks more relaxed in this October 1928 photo than she felt for the first two weeks of school, which was her first time being separated from Mom and Dad. Make sure your child is as ready as they can be with these school essentials most people forget to buy.

S one room school house with the children of all ages. Underwood Archives/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

Some children really did walk 5 miles to school

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was no public or school transportation across most of the United States. In rural areas, schools were meant to serve children who lived within a four- or five-mile radius—what was considered "walking distance" back then. Some kids walked, while others rode horses or drove buggies to school.

vintage waiting for school bus Courtesy Mary Ann Kunselman/Reminisce

Some bus rides were long

Mary Ann Kunselman (center), twin sister Martha, and brother Shelton had the longest ride on this bus in the 1920s because they got off at the last stop. Don't miss the 12 secrets your school bus driver won't tell you.

smaller vintage school Courtesy Evelyn Cochran/Reminisce

Schools were much smaller

Evelyn Cochran attended this school in Passport, Illinois, from 1915 to 1923.

horse drawn school bus vintage Courtesy Elizabeth Norton/Reminisce

Buses used to be drawn by horses

"The horse-drawn bus was painted yellow with a door in the back. Grandpa parked it next to the barn, where kids would play in it," recalls Elizabeth Norton. "That's my sister Alta and brother Charles in the wagon in 1923." Learn more about how horses also pulled mail carriers and what else mail delivery looked like 100 years ago.

vintage school classroom Courtesy Belle Brown/Reminisce

Some students had their mother as their teacher

Belle Brown was Belle Barnes when she attended Edgewood School. That's her in the lower right corner in 1924. Her mother was the teacher.

farm kids take care of the new puppies Underwood Archives/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

The school year was a lot shorter

Today the school year stretches from late-August or September through mid-June—about nine months. In the late 1800s, kids in rural areas were in school for only five, because parents needed children to help with harvest and planting seasons. The school year got longer in the early 1900s as educating children became required by law and more public schools were built. But farm kids were often absent in spring and fall.

an American school teaching girls how to sew Universal History Archive/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

Girls learned domestic skills like sewing

Women's charities and other women-led groups pushed to include basic domestic skills like sewing and mending in girls' education. These were marketable skills and helped less affluent girls get domestic service jobs like housekeeping and laundering. The women who pressed for domestic education in schools also believed the skills would also improve the home lives of the girls, some of whom were impoverished and would come to school in torn old clothes. Learn what proper hygiene looked like 100 years ago. Hint: it's not so different.

Children sliding on a wooden chute at an open-air school Underwood Archives/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

"Open-air school" was a thing

In the early 20th century, outdoor and "open-air" schools became a popular trend for children with lung disease or other health problems. The school buildings were often a tent with open sides, or just classrooms with huge windows that were left wide open, even in winter. It was thought that the sunshine and fresh air would help the kids breathe easier and give them more energy. Find out the things your school principal won't tell you—but you'll definitely want to know.

discipline vintage school photo class Courtesy Max Philpott/Reminisce

Discipline was enforced

Max Philpot (front row, on left) and his buddy wondered who'd feel the discipline stick first. He did after he was caught fighting. This picture of their 1850s log school, later covered in siding, was taken in 1922.

vintage school class Courtesy Willard Bailey/Reminisce

Students skipped school sometimes

Willard Bailey and his friends at Inglewood High School in 1926 had a "senior skip" day with a Western flavor, as they dressed up like cowboys and rode a wagon around town. Willard is at top right.

class in teacher's car vintage Courtesy Edmund Wright/Reminisce

Some classrooms could fit in their teacher's car

This could have been the 1923 class photo for the Lucas School, a few miles south of Satanta, Kansas. It shows all the students, including Edmund Wright (left), in their teacher's car. Don't miss these heartwarming ways teachers have gone above and beyond for their students.

vintage school scissors Courtesy Ken Cole/Reminisce

Students were taught how to properly hold and use scissors

Using scissors is obviously what these children were waiting for in this 1922 photograph at the Presumpscot School in Portland, Maine. Ken Cole is in the last row, on the right. Check out what technology has looked like in schools over the years and how much it has developed.

A one room school house Underwood Archives/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

Grades 1 to 8 learned together in a one-room schoolhouse

Most American kids in the 1800s and early 1900s went to one-teacher, one-room schoolhouses for first through eighth grade. Depending on the population of the nearby area, there could be anywhere from a handful of students to more than 40. The youngest kids sat in the front and the oldest in the back, with the teacher on a raised platform at the front of the class.

Children arriving at school with their books straps Underwood Archives/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

Lunch pails were actual metal pails

The only school supplies children had in the early 1900s were chalk and tiny chalkboards called slates, and sometimes textbooks, according to a report from the Library of Congress. They used slates like notepaper and worksheets are used in elementary level classrooms today—to work math problems, practice writing, and spelling, and just about everything else. As for lunchtime, children often carried their lunch to school in a metal pail (hence the term "lunch pail") or woven baskets. Learn which popular foods people hated eating 100 years ago. You definitely wouldn't see any of those in a students lunch pail!

school play theater vintage Courtesy Viola Stoddard/Reminisce

School plays were always a hit

The art and drama department of Howell (Michigan) High School put on a production of The Wishing Well for two nights to a packed house in March 1928. Viola Stoddard (back row, sixth from right) was in the chorus.

vintage kindergarten school Courtesy Marjorie Leborgne/Reminisce

Kindergarten wasn't available in every town

"It was the first day of school in 1920 for me (in the hair ribbon) and my brother, Raymond," says Marjorie Leborgne. "Raymond was 5 and going into first grade because there was no kindergarten in Kingston, New York, where we lived. I was 7 and starting third grade. Our sister Alma was 3 and too young for school. She stayed home with our mother, who is behind us." See just how family time was different 100 years ago with these vintage photos.

vintage school music class instruments Courtesy Ione Pinsker/Reminisce

They had limited instruments for music class

"In 1926, I was a 12-year-old musician with the junior orchestra at Mark Twain School in Webster Groves, Missouri," says Ione Pinsker (second row, right of the triangle). "By the time they got to me, the only instrument remaining was the viola, which I disliked, but I had promised to finish the semester on any available instrument. My real education was learning to appreciate music." Don't miss these powerful reasons why teachers love their jobs.

school pageant vintage Courtesy James Burdette Smith/Reminisce

Students put on pageants

Back in 1922, eight second-graders put on this Washington's birthday pageant at McAlister School in Lawrence, Kansas. That's James Burdette Smith at far left in the back row.

vintage school Courtesy Mary Smith/Reminisce

A lot of students loved their teachers

"This 1924 picture is of my first-grade class at Warren School in Decatur, Illinois," says Mary Smith. "I'm second from the left in the first row, and my brother, Paul, is second from the left in the second row. The teacher was Miss Pearson, whom I dearly loved. Check out these inspirational teacher quotes that will make you love them even more.

Daily inspection of teeth and finger nails Universal History Archive/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

Teeth and fingernails were inspected for dirt

In the late 1800s, immigrant families from Poland, Germany, Italy, Russia, and other countries were vigorously educated in the American cleanliness culture, Suellen Hoy wrote in Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness. Children's fingernails, hair, faces, and teeth were inspected for dirt and they were taught how to "properly" wash up with soap and use toothpicks to scrape the dirt from under their nails. Teachers at overcrowded urban schools also worried about contagious disease and often "quarantined" kids with sniffles and other symptoms. Next, see what women's workplaces looked like 100 years ago to see just how far we have come.

Sources:

Encyclopedia.com: "The 1910s Education: Topics In The News"
National Center for Education Statistics: "120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait"
Vanderbilt University: "Evening Schools and Child Labor in the United States, 1870-1910"
Mental Floss: "11 Ways School Was Different in the 1800s"
NCBI: "Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools: Prevalence, Disparities in Use, and Status in State and Federal Policy"
Quartz: "19 US states allow corporal punishment in preschools"
Daily Press: "SCHOOL DAYS WERE HARDER ON CHILDREN OF LATE 1800S"
Butler University Libraries: "A Brief History of the Teaching of Home Economics in the Public Schools of the United States"
Slate: "When Students Went to School Outside—Even in Winter"
America's Library: "One-Room Schoolhouse"
Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness, Suellen Hoy

Originally Published: January 13, 2021

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Find Denver Public Schools Records From 40 Years Ago

Source: https://www.rd.com/list/what-school-was-like-100-years-ago/