What were primary schools like in 1916 in the us?

Answer 1

Primary School is another name for Elementary School. Historically, schools in the US included all grades, in one small room (schoolhouse). However, most boys only attended to 3rd grade; they needed to help on farms and only needed the 3 R's (reading, writing, Arithmetic). Girls often did not go to school, but when they did, they often attended longer than boys.

When colonists settled a new area, they generally built community services in this order:

1. their own home and farm
2. their businesses - Mills, Stills, Blacksmiths were the most common to every town; millinaries, which were small general stores that sold a variety of products; by mid-1800s, women took in boarders; did laundry and seamstress services; dyes for fabrics; candle-makers, etc.
3. Taverns - which also served as hotels, especially along stage coach routes
4. establishing County "offices", Tax Collectors, Voting sites - these were often in people's homes
5. a church or churches--there was a lot of competition between faiths for converts
6. a college or seminary in some locations - this often came before "schoolhouse"
7. a schoolhouse - this evolved into numerous one-room schoolhouses in different townships within a county

By 1800, this was the established way of building a new town. Before schoolhouses, mothers taught their children around the dinner table.