Yup. However, this was the classical education system, and it was pretty much everywhere into somewhere around the mid-60s or end of the 60s.

According to something I read while living in the UK, the class of 1969 was the best educated in the US, the UK, and South Africa, And that was the end of that.

That was when the last group of classically educated people left school. After that, the current education system kicked into gear.

It was thought that you didn't have to teach English grammar or spelling because people would pick it up automatically. Turned out not to be true. The 'new math' is a far inferior way of teaching it.

And so on and so forth.

If you speak to people who are in their 80s, they will tell you that they had a very different education system (even in the States) to the one you have now.