Curriculum
The curriculum varied by grade level and school, but we can identify a few textbooks used in 1910.
Assigned Reading Example
There was a variety of different readings that were assigned to students in Willimantic in 1910 that are not common in schools today.
One example of this was The Book of Good Manners by Frederick Martens. This book was a guide for how to be polite at different social functions. The author believed and wanted to teach others that children should have good manners from the minute they are accepted as a member of the human society. The book is broken down into a variety of parts such as expectations of young girls and boys in society, at different weddings and good manners in general.
Another example was The Physiology of Marriage by William A. Alcott. This text described the different aspects of marriage by breaking down the different expectations that women and men have in a marriage. One of the topics that is also discussed is that the ideals of marriage needs to be taught to girls sooner than to boys.
The Young Man's Book of Classical Letters by Emma Watkins was also used as part of the curriculum. This book is designed to improve girls' and boys' abilities in the art of letter-writing. The author described letter-writing as a key for respectibility and overall success in life. It contains how-to parts for narrative letters, letters of friendship, and military letters. This book is interesting because it demonstrates the importance letter writing possessed as a form of communication at the time.