Yes, that's true. The nature of the congregations changed in the Rutherford era. Character Development was the Russellite expression of a late 19th Social Reform theory advocated by some psychologists and what then passed as social workers who were often religious. I understand why Rutherford attacked it. It didn't work as intended and led to strife within the congregations. Self reform [character development] theory is not, in the Christian perspective, the same as emulating Christ.
One source says that in the Rutherford era the average education was to seventh grade. This is sometimes used to denigrate adherents, but it was part of the Common School system to end education for most at 7th grade. The education system evolved in America in the 1930s to include high school. High schools existed before, but they were not anything like those of today. And it was rare for someone to enroll. Maria Russell graduated high school, but for her that meant at best one or two additional years.
This is from the rough draft of volume 2's first chapter
"Maria was somewhat better educated than Russell. She
graduated from Pittsburgh’s High School, where Russell took classes at the
YMCA. She was admitted in 1864 for the 1864-1865 class. Admission to Pittsburgh
Central High School on Smithfield Street was by examination; questions were
asked addressing basic education on grammar, geography and history, and the
examination lasted two days. Maria’s contemporary, George Fleming, described
the process: 'There were at least three [math] definitions to answer and a
question in long division; one involving an equation with one unknown quantity
and one of the ten questions with a requirement of fifty percent; ... . In
other studies also fifty per cent. [This is how percent was then written; it’s
the abbreviation of the Latin Per Centum.] was required except spelling where
sixty per cent. was the minimum.'
The exam room was poorly lighted, which made cheating difficult, but not
impossible, and it was sometimes happened.
"It
appears that she was enrolled in the ‘normal,’ or teacher training cohort.
There is no record of attendance beyond the one year, though we suspect she
attended at least one more year. When asked by her attorney: 'Where were you
educated, Mrs. Russell?' she listed Pittsburgh High School and Curry Normal
School. She did not claim to have graduated from either."
After graduating she attended Curry Institute taking the teacher training course. Some writers represent this as college. It wasn't. This is another quotation from the rough draft of chapter one:
"Some mistake Curry Institute for a college. Though it
became one before its demise, when Maria Ackley attended it was not one.
Founded by Robert Curry, PhD, it was ‘celebrated’ for its ‘normal school’
program. Normal schools were teacher training institutions. Some evolved into
regular colleges, many did not. The ‘normal’ course work, that for teacher
training, lasted six months. Following her older sister Salina, Maria sought
qualification as a teacher, receiving her Permanent Certificate in the fall of
1870. We
do not know if she had a temporary certificate prior to this but suspect that
she did. The 1870 R. L. Polk Directory lists her as a primary grades teacher."
Common school textbooks of the Russell era are way beyond what we expect of students today. In small town schools and country schools some teachers had no appreciable education, and post 1929 American schools were in a funding crisis. So for young people, those just 'coming up' education was short changed. Also the idea that only certificated teachers [in opposition to parents] were fit to teach children started entering what was then called "Educational Psychology" text books, giving license to teachers to foist any cock-eyed belief on the students. Most affected by this were working class families whose jobs left them little time to educate their own children.