Correspondence Schooling was, for roughly a century, the main way people studied without attending classes, receiving printed lessons by mail and sending completed work back for grading. It trained mechanics, clerks, soldiers and children on remote farms, and it built habits that online courses still rely on.
This article looks at correspondence schooling as an institution. It covers how the large commercial schools began, how a typical course worked, who enrolled, the criticism the industry faced, efforts to set standards, and how mail-based study eventually gave way to digital learning.
A School That Arrived in the Mailbox
The basic idea was simple. A student enrolled, paid a fee and received a set of printed lessons. Each lesson ended with questions or exercises, which the student completed and mailed back. An instructor graded the work, added comments and returned it along with the next lesson.
This arrangement removed many barriers. Students did not need to live near a school, quit their jobs or follow a fixed timetable. They could study at night, on weekends or between shifts, moving as quickly or slowly as their lives allowed.
Correspondence study existed in smaller forms earlier in the nineteenth century, notably shorthand lessons sent by post. What changed in the late nineteenth century was scale. Rising literacy, cheap printing, reliable mail and a fast-growing industrial economy created millions of potential students who wanted practical skills and could not stop working to get them.
From Mine Safety to a National Industry
The best-known example began in the coal country of Pennsylvania. In the early 1890s, Thomas J. Foster, who published a newspaper for the mining industry in Scranton, began offering instruction by mail to help miners understand safety and prepare for examinations required for supervisory jobs.
Demand was strong, and the effort grew into the International Correspondence Schools. Its offerings soon expanded far beyond mining to engineering, drafting, electricity, mechanics, bookkeeping, architecture and many other subjects tied to industrial work.
The company produced its own textbooks and instruction papers designed for self-study, written in plain language with worked examples. It employed instructors to grade lessons and built a large sales operation. Other commercial correspondence schools followed, and by the early twentieth century home study had become a major business in the United States and in several other countries.
How a Correspondence Course Worked
Although schools differed, most courses followed a recognizable pattern. The design aimed to replace the teacher’s explanations with carefully written text and to keep students moving through the material on their own.
- The student received a bundle of lessons, often with a textbook, drawing tools or other supplies.
- Each lesson explained a topic step by step, with examples and diagrams.
- Review questions at the end checked understanding before moving on.
- The student mailed answers to the school and waited for grading.
- Instructors returned corrected work with comments, and successful completion led to a certificate or diploma.
The quality of grading often decided whether a course succeeded. Detailed comments helped students fix mistakes, while brief marks offered little guidance.
Waiting was a built-in weakness. A student who misunderstood a concept might not learn of the error until days or weeks later, a delay that made persistence difficult for many.
Who Enrolled and Why
Correspondence students came from many backgrounds, but several groups appear again and again in the history of home study.
Workers Seeking Advancement
Many students were adults who wanted a better job. A machinist might study drafting, a clerk accounting, or a laborer electrical work. Certificates did not carry the weight of college degrees, but practical knowledge could help workers pass licensing examinations, earn promotions or start small businesses.
For people without the time or money for full-time school, home study offered a realistic route upward.
Rural and Isolated Learners
People far from towns turned to correspondence when no suitable school existed nearby. This included farm families, residents of mining or lumber camps, and settlers in thinly populated regions. For some, a correspondence course was the only structured education available beyond the elementary grades, and lessons by mail became a lifeline to further learning.
Soldiers and Sailors
Military service also produced many correspondence students. During the Second World War, the US armed forces developed a large program of correspondence courses for service members, allowing them to continue schooling while stationed far from home. Similar programs helped many veterans and service members finish high school or begin college-level work.
Universities Enter the Mail Business
Commercial schools were not the only providers. American universities developed correspondence study in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often as part of extension divisions meant to serve the whole state. The University of Chicago built a correspondence program from its early years in the 1890s.
State universities, especially in the Midwest and West, saw correspondence study as a way to fulfill their public mission across large rural territories. They offered college-credit courses, teacher training and, in some cases, high school courses for students without access to a local high school.
University correspondence had a different reputation from commercial schools. Courses were usually taught by faculty or approved instructors and could count toward degrees. Even so, some academics regarded mail study as second-rate compared with campus learning, a suspicion that would later follow online education as well.
Sales Tactics, Dropouts and Criticism
As the industry grew, so did criticism. Much of it targeted commercial schools that relied on aggressive salesmanship and payment plans.
Common concerns raised by critics, journalists and regulators included:
- Salespeople who overstated the job prospects a course would provide.
- Contracts requiring payment even after a student stopped studying.
- High dropout rates, with many students never finishing the courses they paid for.
- Diploma mills that awarded credentials with little or no real study.
- Uneven grading, with some instructors returning work with only minimal feedback.
Government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission in the United States, took action over deceptive practices at various times. These problems damaged the reputation of home study and made the public wary of distance credentials for decades.
Defenders countered that reputable schools offered real value to students who completed the work, and that low completion reflected students’ difficult lives as much as poor teaching.
Accreditation and Self-Regulation
Reputable correspondence schools had an interest in separating themselves from fraudulent operators. In the 1920s, a group of schools formed the National Home Study Council to promote standards in the field.
Over time the council developed an accrediting process for home study institutions, reviewing course materials, instruction, student services and business practices. The organization continued through the decades, changing its name as the field evolved, and today operates as the Distance Education Accrediting Commission.
University correspondence programs developed their own professional associations and standards through their extension divisions. Accreditation did not solve every problem, but it gave students a way to distinguish established schools from questionable ones. That concern remains highly relevant, because diploma mills have followed students from the mailbox to the internet, and checking recognized accreditation is still an essential step.
Correspondence for Children Around the World
Correspondence schooling also served children who lived too far from any school. Australia is a well-known example. In the early twentieth century, state education departments began sending lessons by mail to children on remote properties, with parents or governesses supervising daily work.
Later, two-way radio added live contact through the Schools of the Air, beginning in Alice Springs in 1951, while printed correspondence lessons remained the core of the work. Children mailed completed assignments to teachers they rarely or never met in person.
Other countries with remote populations, including Canada and New Zealand, developed their own correspondence schools for children. Families living abroad, such as those of diplomats or missionaries, also used correspondence curricula. These programs showed that mail-based study could support young learners, provided an adult at home helped maintain routine and motivation.
From Paper Lessons to Online Courses
Through the twentieth century, correspondence schools gradually added new media. Some courses included audio recordings, and later videotapes, alongside printed lessons. Fax and telephone tutoring shortened the wait for feedback in some programs.
The arrival of the internet in the 1990s transformed the field. Email and course websites replaced mailed envelopes, and assignments could be returned in days or even hours. Many correspondence providers converted their courses to online formats, and university correspondence divisions often became online learning offices.
Despite the technology change, much of the design logic survived. Online self-paced courses still rely on carefully sequenced modules, self-check questions, submitted assignments and instructor feedback. Concerns about completion rates and credential quality also carried over. In many ways, online learning is correspondence schooling with faster delivery and more ways to connect.
Judging a Self-Paced Course Today
The history of correspondence schooling offers a useful checklist for anyone considering a self-paced course now. Start by checking accreditation through recognized accrediting bodies, since credentials from unaccredited providers may carry little value with employers or colleges.
Look closely at feedback. Ask who grades assignments, how detailed the comments are, and how long you will wait. Fast, thoughtful feedback has always separated effective distance courses from weak ones.
Read refund and cancellation policies before paying, a lesson learned from decades of contract complaints. Plan your schedule realistically, and find someone to keep you accountable, whether a study partner, mentor or family member. Correspondence students who finished usually had a routine and some form of support behind them.