My mother and her grandmother immigrated to the US in 1920, she was twelve years old. It took her about six weeks to learn English, granny never learned. Mom attended "normal school" through eighth grade and then attended "Teachers College" which amounted to high school.
Most kids did not attend beyond eighth grade but if you ever run across the comprehensive exam they had to complete to graduate you'd be impressed by the difficulty level of the questions. I'd think that few if any college graduate English majors would pass.
Regards,
GtG
Different times, unfortunately. Different times. I try lots of that with my classes - the older stuff that’s completely out of fashion today. I don’t care much about what the books say they *should* know for their age. I try to give them whatever they can get their hands on.
Makes me sad. So many struggle with the basics these days, like reading and spelling. I could spend all my time on just that and the kids would excel.