half of a private tutor?

That teaches everything. You think every one room schoolhouse was staffed by someone who knew every topic well enough to teach others?

If something wasn't in the handful of textbooks, there was no way to get that information.

I don't think he ever made it to algebra, definitely nothing like chemistry or physics. Biology would have been a joke, and astronomy likely limited to memorizing the order of planets.

It was not a good education.