Children at school
In the time that immigrant children went to school, there were many requirements you had to face. One of those requirements was being able to speak English. Almost all immigrants could not do that. To fix this schools set up programs were immigrants would learn English. To do this it took the immigrants 5 months. That may seem like a long time, but in reality this was very short. Kids would not stay in school for very long. Most parents would try to keep them there until they were 14. In fact some kids would drop out at the age of 9. This was very common in grade school, but those few who stayed for all of school, most likely get better jobs to support them and their family. Teachers were very strict in grade school, but they had to be otherwise kids would dose off and waste their time in school. Most subjects today in school were unheard of. Gymnasiums were a luxury like any other. Music was an opportunity for rich family's. And like everything else, their family could not afford this luxury.