The Avonlea school was a whitewashed building low in the eaves and wide in the windows, furnished inside with comfortable substantial old-fashioned desks that opened and shut, and were carved all over their lids with the initials and hieroglyphics of three generations of school children. The schoolhouse was set back from the road and behind it was a dusky fir wood and a brook where all the children put their bottles of milk in the morning to keep cool and sweet until dinner hour.

"Marilla had seen Anne start off to school on the first day of September....

"Anne came home that evening in high spirits.

“'I think I’m going to like school here,' she announced. 'I don’t think much of the master, though....'” (149-50)

Photo of Tryon Consolidated School, 1912.
Public Archives Record Office Acc2667/135

from L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. Boston: L. C. Page, 1908.

At the turn of the 19th century, about 470 school districts existed in Prince Edward Island, each with its own small school. The quality of education was dependent on the teacher, with the Province setting the curriculum that students studied. PEI was largely agricultural at the time, but education – especially higher education – was largely geared to students who wanted to enter the professions, such as law, medicine, and education. Little was taught that would be helpful for students who decided to remain in farming and agriculture.