Class, 1927

Many students were the children of immigrants and were bilingual, speaking English at school and their native language at home. The bowl style hair cuts on many of the young girls was typical for this period. 

The opening of the school day began with the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag. Beginning in 1913, state law required the reading of ten verses from the Bible by the teacher.  

Pennsylvania state law also required that school open at 9AM and close at 4PM with lunch at noon and a break of fifteen minutes in the morning and afternoon. 

"Pennsylvania Public School Catechism." Pennsylvania School Journal 74 (October, 1925): 80.

Louise Gilchriese Walsh, History and Organization of Education in Pennsylvania 
(Indiana, Pennsylvania: R.S. Grosse Print Shop, 1930), 67.

Photo: courtesy Helen Piscevich Morgan collection.