My wife and I have been reading the “Little House” books to our 7yr old, and he really likes them. There are some incredible examples of elementary school children diagramming sentences and correctly labeling all parts of speech, reciting speeches, poetry, and dramatic soliloquy from memory, and reciting the history of the United States beginning with the landings in Jamestown. This was in the 1880’s and children as young as 16 were teaching school without the benefit of a college degree. It is a real eye opener.
What struck me, too, was that Laura got a teaching certificate at age 15-1/2, (an exception was made for her...normally one had to wait till the ripe old age of 16 to be a teacher.) Some of the questions she had to answer to get her certificate are included in the book. It's amazing how much more kids learned back in those days...in one-room schoolhouses, with no computers or audio-visual aids, often with no schoolbooks other than a Bible or almanack brought from home, taught by teachers who were teenagers themselves.