Schools today are so divided up by age that we often describe kids by what grade they are in. We talk about "fourth-graders" and "sixth-graders," and everybody (in the U.S., anyway) knows what we mean. Back in the 19th century no one would have understood these terms. Because schools were small and close to home, and towns didn't spend much money on them, there was only one teacher per school. Teachers had to figure out how to instruct a group of kids ranging in age from 4 years old (sometimes even younger) to 15 (sometimes even older). Children had to figure out how to learn and pay attention in spite of the noise and distraction caused by so many kids. In some schools there were several groups of children reciting out loud at the same time! The only time there was some separation by age was in "summer term" schools, which were only for very young children-ages 3-7. These schools taught "the ABCs" and kept the youngest kids, too young to work on the farm, out of their parents' way.

Some teachers solved the problem of keeping order by being so strict that their students were afraid to make noise or even fidget. Quite a few teachers used corporal punishment to keep their classes in line. The best teachers didn't do this-instead, they set rules and made them stick without hitting or "switching" (spanking). Remember that teachers didn't have any special education or preparation for their job; they usually started out at age 18, 19, or 20 and just showed up at the school on the first day. They were expected to figure it all out themselves. A teacher who let students misbehave too much soon lost his or her job. (By the 1830s, women were teaching school in New England about as often as men.)

The kids who were most successful in school were those who found it easy to concentrate and block out whatever else was going on around them. Students who got distracted had a much tougher time learning. Of course, school attendance wasn't compulsory for children before about 1850, so kids who didn't like school much went for a while, learned the basics of reading and writing, and then didn't attend any longer. In the early 19th century there were many kinds of work that didn't require a lot of education. Now there's a huge difference between the 1830s and today!