On the other hand, people don't realize how far we've come especially for rural areas.

I got an uncle still alive and kicking whose school had to combine grades because there were so few kids.

So for the bulk of his public education it was just him and another girl like 2 years younger than him. That was the whole class, and it was literally a one room school. Not "one classroom" it was a one room log cabin with an outhouse. One single teacher "teaching" literally everything to 1st graders and the rare person who stayed till 12th at the same time.

Oregon Trail generation really looks more like the exception than the rule every year. It seemed like a terrible education at the time, but we're sandwiched between complete farces of an education system.