This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/pAC.2ACI/2153.1 Message Board Post: Grades 1-8 were taught together in a one room school. Some locations went to 8th grade. In rural areas working was normally the priority over school children remained home to work the fields during harvest and sowing time. Sons were more likely to be educated through the 8th grade so they could make a living in the future. Daughters, in most cases, had a very rudimentary education as learning to run a home was their priority. Teachers were often no more than 15 or 16 themselves. They usually boarded with local families. I don't know when the boys learned their trades vs school. I would think that would depend on the trade. Future blacksmiths, for instance, would apprentice out in their teens and apprentice until they came of age. Wealthier families would educate their children more extensively.