Primary education for children was not merely concerned with teaching skills and knowledge in math, history, and reading; educators also wanted to prepare the students for interacting with their community. Fitchburg's teachers knew that learning how to be a citizen is an ongoing process that must be taught throughout a child’s development. As such, they outlined grade-specific instructions for teachers of grades 1-6 on teaching civics and citizenship:

 

Grade 1: Learning important communal habits that promote safety; i.e. safely crossing the street, trusting policemen and firemen, playground rules.

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Grade 2: How the community operates: utilities such as water, roads, and street lighting, and important community services (police, fire department, etc.).

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Grade 3: Community representatives, such as school committees and city inspectors; neighborhood buildings (libraries, churches, hotels, etc.).

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Grade 4: History of Fitchburg government and comparison to modern government.

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Grade 5: Civic institutions and practices; learning about voting, taxes, and the communal judiciary system.

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Grade 6: Public offices (city clerk, commissioners, etc.); communal policies on immigration and responses to national events.

 

In justifying their curricular outline for civic education, the teachers at the Edgerly school and Normal School claimed

 

“Certain basal ideas and habits are needed in every field of citizenship. We should, then, regard the school life of the child as an experience in living during which he forms these ideals, and practices the habits not in the ways vital to an adult, but in the ways in which they are vital to him.”

 

The normal school didn’t just teach valuable skills and knowledge. It taught students how to be model citizens - a worthy lesson indeed.