With few exceptions, most whites at the turn of the 20th century received a minimal education especially if they lived in outlying areas such as Draaifontein / De Stades area which both of my grandparents did. Most residents of Port Elizabeth assume that as both the Grey Institute and Collegiate Girls’ School had been operational for at least 25 years that most children would have attended them or alternatively that other schools of similar ability were readily available.
I would hate to disabuse you but taking the McCleland family as an exemplar, that idyll is far from reality. This is the story of one family, one school and one village.
Main picture: The Mount Pleasant Primary School in 1904
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