Another part of it was the American public schools before the late 19th century was very hit or miss in terms of inculcating a basic education necessary in a rapidly industrializing society or in setting minimal educational standards for K-12 teachers in public or private schools(including individual home tutors*).
One illustration of this was how educational standards for teachers was so low that when Bvt. Major General George Armstrong Custer who briefly worked as a teacher after attending a regional teacher’s college was admitted to West Point, he ended up struggling academically and behaviorally to the point he graduated at the very bottom of his West Point graduating class in 1861 and came very close to being expelled multiple times before his class was graduated early due to the Civil War. .
If it hadn’t been for the Civil War in which West Point graduates were in high demand whatever their graduation ranking and his bravery on the battlefield, his army career would have likely been an obscure one with many backwater postings and assignments higher ranking cadets avoided or had no need to consider due to their having greater assignment options.
- A factor in why many southern families of West Point aspirants and their politicians complained about "elitist" admission standards in the antebellum period and why as a compromise, West Point briefly went to a 5-year curriculum to add an extra year for remedial education for cadets with deficient educational preparation before arriving.
Saddest part about that meme was that private parks where only the well-to-do were allowed to enjoy was once commonplace even in the US. Even nominally public parks reserved the right to discriminate on the basis of race, perceived SES, or other superficial factors we’d find outrageous today.
Incidentally, a remnant of that remains in some parts of the US such as a small park meant only for residents of a gated community a 25 minute walk from me. In practice, no one pays any heed if one looks like s/he fits in…but non-residents enjoying such parks are technically trespassing and local LEO and gated community security never bothered me nor numerous other folks I knew who weren’t locals.
To be fair, I do have an uncle and a few clients who live in that gated community, but I don’t go there often enough for security to know that. .