I started school about twelve years after this. We still had similar desks and little girls still dressed pretty much like this. I wondered what that hole in the desk was for several years until I learned that kids before me had to use pens that had to be dipped into bottles of ink that resided in those little holes. And that back in the day it was the great delight of little boys to dunk little girls' pigtails into those ink wells!

This schoolgirl has excellent posture and that is probably partially the result of the ability to adjust the height of both the desk and the chair.

She is also holding the pencil the same way I was taught and I bet she is writing in cursive too.

Our student has the 1936 Scott Foresman Reader DAVID'S FRIENDS AT SCHOOL text book.
Here is a sample page (if this works)

In first grade they had those evil desks for right handed kids only. The Sisters broke a lot of pointers over my left hand to no avail.