The school curriculum for working class children in the early 1900s

There are six pages in this section on education in the early 1900s

Page 1 of 6: The school system
Page 2 of 6: Classrooms
* This is Page 3 of 6: The curriculum *
. Page 4 of 6: Extra-curricular activities.
Page 5 of 6: Less pleasant things
Page 6 of 6: Education after elementary school

All based on experiences at Silver Street School, Edmonton which was built in 1900 to earlier Victorian specifications.

learning to write 1900s style - sand trays

One of my earliest memories of school in the early 1900s was being given a tray of sand to write out my letters with my finger. It had the advantage that there was no serious rubbing out to do. To start afresh, we children only had to shake the tray.

Learning to write 1900s style - slates and slate pencils

Later came slate and a 'slate' pencil, which made a horrible scratching noise and was very dirty because we would spit on the slate to rub bits out.

 

 

  

  

  

  

Learning to write 1900s style - pen and ink

Later still came pens with nibs which had to be repeatedly dipped in ink, and the nibs got twisted and had to be replaced quite frequently.

Each child's desk had an inkpot made of white china which was set into a specially made hole. Ink pots were filled each week by children who the teacher designated as class monitors.

The ink never seemed to stay where it was supposed to. Somehow it always travelled up our second fingers and we had to be very careful indeed not to get blots onto our clothes or our exercise books, which was very frowned upon. We also had chalks which seemed to me to be even more trouble. This was because I, like most girls, wore a pinafore over my dress. Pinafores were white and sleeveless with frills round the armholes. Some were embroidered, some had a ribbon threaded through them and were very pretty. One day I got my pinafore in an awful mess at school with the chalks, and I was afraid to go home. The girl who lived next door and was much older than me found me crying. She took me home and went in to my mother with me.

Reproduction Victorian and Edwardian school writing tools - as displayed in the museum shop at the Museum of Reading - bottles of ink, china ink pots. pens with replaceable nibs, writing slates with slate pencils.

It would not be advisable to use the ink pots without first securing them in the hole of a desk - see photo above - as they would easily get knocked over, and ink stains badly.

literacy 1900s style

My future husband, who was in the same year as me, but who I didn't know at the time because of boys and girls being segregated, always complained that his class seemed to be taken off to work on the fields whenever there was an English lesson. He was an able man, but never grasped the rudiments of punctuation and grammar until our daughter, Pat, explained them. He asserted that the school teachers themselves didn't understand. How true this was, I can't say.

I suspect that there was never any intention to give girls much education in grammar as we were expected to become housewives and mothers. Nevertheless basic spelling was considered important.

Anyway English was not my strong subject although I always liked jotting things down. Altogether I felt that the general grounding given by the school was very sound, although basic.

arithmetic 1900s style

There was no such thing as maths, but being able to do quick and accurate calculations in one's head was deemed as good education for future housewives. I was always good at mental arithmetic, and when the teacher gave us children a question, my hand was always the first up from my sixty odd class mates.

household management 1900s style

I remember that we were taught how to make a hay box and we cooked a rice pudding in it. I suppose it was a war-time effort on how to make best use of resources but it wasn’t successful as far as I was concerned. Although the rice pudding was edible, anyone would have to be very pushed indeed to bother with it. I much preferred the baked rice puddings that my mother made. We children were also shown how to grow mustard and cress on pieces of flannel in a saucer of water. I suppose that taught us some elementary biology as well as preparing us for self-help with feeding a family. We also had needlework classes making pillowcases by hand, using what was called a 'run and fell seam'.

The wider Curriculum 1900s style

The school also paid attention to the wider curriculum. In one year, for example, we were taken once a week to Burrowell Green open air swimming baths at Edmonton Town Hall. The idea was to teach us how to swim, but I never did learn. I hated the swimming costumes provided by the school. They were long with blue and white stripes and frills round the arm holes, and, as they were made of cotton, they stood away from the skin, making us feel colder than ever when we got out of the water.

There were also extra-curricular activities.

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This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.