[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895.... Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA ... It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895 Grammar (Time, one hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run' 5. Define case; illustrate each case. 6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare? 4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre? 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1 Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865. Orthography (Time, one hour) [Do we even know what this is??] 1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication 2.. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals 4.. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?) 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. Geography (Time, one hour) 1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?! Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO, I don't have the answers! [/FONT]
I will do one of EACH just to show you how simple it really is... First group: Grammar: [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters. Answer: IDONTKNOW Second group: Arith...arithm...math: [/FONT]1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Answer: Addition is cool if kept under the millions place. The rest sucks. Third group: US History: [/FONT]7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe? Answer: Morse was the guy who invented that code thingy, Whitney -like J.C. Whitney the store?, Fulton made spark plugs I thing but they sucked, Bell stole all of Tesla's patents, Lincoln got shot by the bankers, Penn is the tall guy and the quiet guy is Teller... and Howe? Huh? Fourth group: Orthography: (Forget it. Does it count against me if I skip this section? I mean, my name is worth what? Like, 25 points or something?) Fifth Group: Geography: 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. Answer: Texas! (Thank you Trivial Pursuit!) WHEW! What a test! (sorry if I made you feel stupider)
At that time, most were doing well if they could parse their way through a newspaper, or even write their name legibly. And cypherin' was simple so long as you didn't run out of fingers and toes....... [rofllmao]
I've known some with bachelor's and master's degrees that couldn't pass that one! Wow! That's a true test!
Got another one! 1954 8th Grade Civics Test - Could You Pass? 1954 8th Grade Civics Test - Could You Pass? 2-1-7 What more proof do we need that our children are being deliberately dumbed down than this standard 1954 civics test on the U.S. Constitution on which Kenny Hignite received a 98 1/2, Excellent, indeed!
Dang! Now it gets even harder! ( latin,... are you kidding me?) I no longer consider myself at the 8th grade level, after these! I'd be still setting in the sand box..... Makes one take a LONG look back at what they were taught in their own school years.... I can recall back to my 3rd grade teacher and what we did back then.... Now that I take a look back in time, I can see where lessons changed and teaching was "relaxed" in a lot of areas....By the time I was in highschool, (1966 ish) things really had gone "downhill' from the education I'd rec'd in grade school! weird, now that I look at it...(I'd never even thought about that, until today!)
Man, I've got a MBA and I'd be embarrassed to say what I'd score on that test. Reading over it I think I'd pass. I'm sure they were using the 6 point scale to determine grades so it would be close. Grammar: I'll squeeze by this section. Would do better but I've become much to reliant on MS word and looking stuff up online. Math: No problem, my job requires me to use all the math that I never thought I'd use again after graduation. I am surprised at the metric system question, it hadn't been around too long when this test was written. US History: I'm ok here. Had some good history teachers in high school and college. Orthography: Another iffy one, very iffy. This is my pass or fail section. There's only one term I don't remember seeing before which happens to be orthography. Geography: Think I'm ok with this section also. I'm going to pass this on to the home school group we used to belong to in NC. I bet the upper class kids could pass it no problem. Unfortunately my kids have been dumbed down by 4 years in the Ga public school system so I doubt they'd even come close to passing. Hopefully the meeting we're going to next month about starting a new homeschool group down here will move quickly so I can get my kids out of there.
I just think these tests show what an American education used to be until the federal government took it over.
Mark diacritically they have to be kidding. I am a high school teacher and I would not know where to begin.
That is exactly the point. Even 50 years ago, that sort of thing was taught (I was there. Do I remember it all? No.) That said, I was taught and usually use proper English even if it has a helping of the King's modifications. These days, it seems that the King's version rules, spelling and grammar don't count. More's the pity. Heh. Spell check doesn't even recognize "diacritically" as an adverbial of "diacritical." I guess there is a message there. too.
I could probably pass the 1954 civic test with out missing too many questions ... i teach coillege level political science and criminal justice administration/constitutional law.... would loose a few as i don't have the preamble memorized... I recognize orthography but would not pass that section as i have a PhD in creative spelling... i could probably pass the initial 8th grade test but wouldn't want to bet the house on it...
I felt truly proud of myself when in the 8th grade, I was judged to be reading at the 'college level'. Now, I ain't so sure.......
Most newspapers used to be written (wayback times) for 6th grade comprehension. Scientific American was written to be understood by any 12th grade student. The NYT and WSJ were aimed at 8th grade graduates. That seems no longer true, at least for the fishwrappers. The editors have to take the blame for not insisting on good writing. 'Course, I think they don't know it when they see it. Sad.
I love words and language - many of you are aware that I rarely use a short word when a long one can be be substituted Language was very important in my family so my parents always spoke to my brother and me as if we were adults and expected us learn the meanings. I have a distinct memory of using the word "facetious" when I was 8. I was so proud of myself - I not only knew the word but also the meaning and I had used it correctly But kidding aside, when I was a newspaper reporter, the editors were constantly paring my columns of words that best described an event only to replace them with an innocuous euphenism. The elegance of language and words is being forgotten as our culture accepts text-speak and vulgarity as the norm Rant over
Agreed - language degrades as the populace become lazy. Text Speak is one of my particular dislikes. Okay for asking your buddies of GF where to meet after school or work - a huge "NONO" for trying to impart important info on an international forum! I see it, I immediately hit the 'back' tab. I work in the Education field - though only a low-level computer programmer - and I am my team's "Documentation Guru". Our documents and charts MUST be readable and accurate. That naturally carries over to anything else I write. It's like driving - USE those turn signals EVERY time, it becomes second nature. Have to 'think' about using them, you won't....... Folks these days get out of school, it's like they do a mental 'core dump', since they "don't need that stuff anymore!" It isn't just the schools dropping the ball - it's the families too.
IF only the federal goverment would require all laws that are passed had to be written at 8th grade level.... this includes tax laws... but i guess that would put too many lawyers out of work...
