Brooklyn Catholic School: c. 1910

I am an educator in an urban school. My classes of 25 - 30 students are very challenging.

There seems to be an assumption that schools were better "in the good old days" and modern educators are not up to the task. Can one really assume that this classroom of children is better educated than a classroom of 25 today? Where all of these students expected to attend college or to pass a state mandated test? Are these girls read for an job market that isn't even identified yet? It's time we stopped assuming that our education (or in this case, our grandparents' education) is superior to a modern education simply because it worked for us.

A quick rows-by-columns estimate counts 90 girls in that room! I'd guess the standers in the back usually sat in the empty section on the right, but moved to get into camera range.

And we worry today about a class size of 25.

The class size seems to be similar to what I recall from Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda MD in the 50's - about 60 pupils. Today, "learning suffers" if class size exceeds 25, yet somehow we all emerged literate, numerate, and well disciplined.