The Quality of Our Schools Today

[spare_change]

Received this via email. It is a test given to 8th grade students in 1895. Can your 14 year old answer these? Can you? BTW - note that the test is 5 hours long. So, how good is the school district in your area? (Note: It's broken down into two posts, because it was too long)

Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th GRADE FINAL EXAM

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, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
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 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. 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 cost of 6720 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 meter?
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 around 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

[spare_change]

Orthography (Time, one hour)
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, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
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 pronunciati on 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 &Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. 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.

[spare_change]

I am convinced I can answer the following:

Grammar - 3 questions
Arithmetic - 5 questions
US History - 3 questions
Orthography - 1 question
Geography - 5 questions

That gives me a score of about 36% (2 points per question). Reckon I will be in the 8th grade next year!

[Wyvern75]

It is always interesting to see the tests that were required for kids to take, back when most kids had to quit school at 8th grade (the minimum mandatory grade) and when High School was only 3 years. (This changed around WWII).

My Grandfather only went to 8th grade, but he also apprenticed on a newspaper and before his death, he was "clerking" at law (instead of law school before going for the Bar). My Grandmother was a certified Teacher with just two years of College. And my other Grandfather (Mothers side) had graduated from the New York Public School system in 1914 and that counted for one or two years of college in many midwest Colleges.

I have a couple of the old math, science (chemistry and biology) and history books from that era and I remember being drilled on how to diagram a sentence and spelling in elementary-high school. For some reason the Education people didn't keep up with the standards, they weren't modern or politically correct enough. But actually, remembering the College of Education students, they weren't the brightest of the bunch in College and the Future Teachers of America, in High School were more of the butt kissers than future teacher material.

My School District had no illusion that most of the kids would leave and never come back (small Texas District of 1,100 kids) and the goal was every kid that enrolled in 1st Grade would graduate from High School (12th Grade) and every kid that graduated from High School would go to college. In 1962, 100% of the graduating class went to college (didn't necessarily graduate from there) and my class of '71, 85% went.

[spare_change]

And, I think the result is that today, a sophomore in college is educated to about the same level as a high school graduate during my era (damn, that sounds old).

That's why a college degree is so essential today -- until then, the kids haven't learned basic communications, mathematics, and deductive skills.

[Wet Beaver]

it is a hard test..to bad it not real.

Claim: An 1895 graduation examination for public school students demonstrates a shocking decline in educational standards.
Status: False.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm

[spare_change]

it is a hard test..to bad it not real.

Claim: An 1895 graduation examination for public school students demonstrates a shocking decline in educational standards.
Status: False.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm

Actually, if you read this closely, it does not challenge the validity of the test. It questions whether showing the test provides an adequate measurement of the difference between educational standards.

Further, you will note that it is strictly an opinion piece (though a valid opinion) as to whether this measures the decline in educational standards. Some say yes- he says no.

So, the test is real - the corresponding theorem may or may not be.

[Wet Beaver]

all i know, is that is been on the internet for a while, and it shows up most boards...i'll see if i can fine the board where someone actually posted the links to the books that were use in the school.

[Penny]

I got a headache after reading number one :(

[aceofspades1114]

lol well I know this must not be a public schools test, lol When I was in high school half of the clocks didn't work. My school district didn't have enough money for books so they would just xerox copies of the text books and hand it to us. lol

[Wyvern75]

lol well I know this must not be a public schools test, lol When I was in high school half of the clocks didn't work. My school district didn't have enough money for books so they would just xerox copies of the text books and hand it to us. lol

Interesting enough, the school the test supposedly came from was a Public School. A lot of public schools are very good, well funded, and have great results. Unfortunately a lot of public schools in the cities are looked upon as a cash cow for local politicians. There is also the problem with some administrators, athletic departments and teacher unions.

[aceofspades1114]

Yeah I know they are pretty good.

I was just going into the stereotypical opinion of people. My school was pretty good even tho we didn't have any text books, lol

[SirFox]

It is always interesting to see the tests that were required for kids to take, back when most kids had to quit school at 8th grade (the minimum mandatory grade) and when High School was only 3 years. (This changed around WWII).

My Grandfather only went to 8th grade, but he also apprenticed on a newspaper and before his death, he was "clerking" at law (instead of law school before going for the Bar). My Grandmother was a certified Teacher with just two years of College. And my other Grandfather (Mothers side) had graduated from the New York Public School system in 1914 and that counted for one or two years of college in many midwest Colleges.

I have a couple of the old math, science (chemistry and biology) and history books from that era and I remember being drilled on how to diagram a sentence and spelling in elementary-high school. For some reason the Education people didn't keep up with the standards, they weren't modern or politically correct enough. But actually, remembering the College of Education students, they weren't the brightest of the bunch in College and the Future Teachers of America, in High School were more of the butt kissers than future teacher material.

My School District had no illusion that most of the kids would leave and never come back (small Texas District of 1,100 kids) and the goal was every kid that enrolled in 1st Grade would graduate from High School (12th Grade) and every kid that graduated from High School would go to college. In 1962, 100% of the graduating class went to college (didn't necessarily graduate from there) and my class of '71, 85% went.


Imagine a city with such an objective...that 100% of the pupils starting school ends up with a high school degree. THAT IS FABULOUS!

Schools are going downhill almost everywhere. Budgets across Europe for school are being cut just as in Stateside.

The worst of it all is that politics has entered the school system.

[Free2ChooseU]

My eyes crossed, and I am like, "What the f$##" After reading that first one....., Gave me a headache too, and my eyeballs hurt....:sp:

[Big O]

I just thank God that I passed 8th grade in 1894!

[Wyvern75]

Imagine a city with such an objective...that 100% of the pupils starting school ends up with a high school degree. THAT IS FABULOUS!

Schools are going downhill almost everywhere. Budgets across Europe for school are being cut just as in Stateside.

The worst of it all is that politics has entered the school system.

It is always a fight to keep a school district focused on the idea of teaching students. There have been some rather nasty fights in my old school district over the past 20 years, where Superintendents wanted to put in a $3 million computer system or whatever but couldn't show how that much money would teach anyone anything. Either the School Board or the voters turned them down, and the Superintendents usually went away shortly afterwards, but the high school graduates that went to college has still stayed in the upper 80% and '99 had 94% go to college. The problem is Superintendents are ranked on how much money they spend (buildings, computers, etc) when it comes to future jobs, not how many kids were educated or what the standardized test scores are. But I think if you go to places like rural West Texas, and the small rural districts in flyover country you will find a realization that the kids have to be educated. It also seems that when the property owners (those who pay for the schools) are alienated from the schools (too many minority students and too few of the property owners race/culture) the quality of education in that district collapses.

One of the old sayings in my home town was, "We produce 3 things, cattle, cotton, and kids. In June we send the cattle out, never to return, in August we send the cotton out never to return and in September we send the kids out, most never to return, but we want everyone to appreciate the quality of what we produce."

I used to score the standarized tests for the various states. It was very interesting how some districts did well and how some (many didn't). The worst districts were those wher the Mayor appointed the District Superintendent and the Principals, those appointments were based on politics, not education. Then there are the teachers unions, which aren't interested in teaching.

[aceofspades1114]

True fox politics has entered into the school district.

The thing is politics is in everything so it isn't suprising. That is what makes politics so intresting for me because it is in everyday life.

What we need to do is find away for the senate to get money so we can send intercity kids to college, or even a lower class. If we dont do anything about them there is always going to be a poverity line in our country. High School diplomas are great but almost any job you need to go to college or a secondary school to get more education. Since of all the fun stuff George dub-ha put us into we are strapped with money and our deficit is lowest in years. He is the first ever President to spend so much cash in his years in office. So it will be hard to do anything for the next few years to get us back on track

[SirFox]

In some European countries, we see that National Education is also going down the drain. I recently saw statistics for French children being schooled in France: parents are placing their offspring into private schools for the same reasons that Americans did early in the 20th century: obtain a better education without the hassles of politics, descrimination, etc.

There are two sides of the coin here: indeed private education gives a relatively better education, and on the other hand, there are thousands of children who continue to go to public schools whose ratings as educators are lower and lower.

There are geopolitical demographics that are changing extremely fast. Emigration of new populations is a dilmena which the West has decided NOT to face. Involved are the people who come to the new countries to search for work with new children of other cultures, other languages, and the gradual weakening of the Western social structure.

The continued hammering away at the Western societies has created a major problem in public education: what should teachers be teaching in their classrooms, how should they teach the subjects they are expected to teach, and how to do that within a relatively tolerant educational system and reaching to all children?

The Western societies have not wished to face the fact that their societies are changing rapidly and that they must take into account new demographics. Why? Because it is politically unsauvy and dangerous.

In conclusion all children suffer.

And so will the societies in years to come.

Mark my words.

[Sandy]

honey we're from alabama and we're ranked next to the last in worstr school system in the states only mississippi is lower than us. is their any question why we use private schools?

[Seeker]

It Amazes me to see how far we have fallen, from those days! Back then, with an education like that, you could get by with 'just' a third grade education! I think by comparison, that's about what I graduated H. S. with :(

[Seeker]

Personally, I believe that, if you have the three basics.... You have it all! Reading, writing, and math!

[SirFox]

honey we're from alabama and we're ranked next to the last in worstr school system in the states only mississippi is lower than us. is their any question why we use private schools?

In a World where we all need to know a lot and probably more than when we went to school, we are creating iliterates and people who cannot function with basic skills.

The world is backwards.

[mometal77]

I do wish these kind of women where in my school when i went.. a friend was telling me he picked up the phone and his 17 yr son was on one end and his gf was on the other having phone sex yes i sure do believe schools are different now a days..

[spare_change]

Personally, I believe that, if you have the three basics.... You have it all! Reading, writing, and math!

Ever notice that two out of the 3 R's don't start with R?

[SirFox]

Do you think that civics should be taught in school so that everyone on a State level has the basics as concerns the working of our governments?

[Wyvern75]

It would be nice if the teachers who were teaching civics has a basic understanding of the workings of our governments, in San Antonio it seems the teachers think that walking the block for democratic candidates is a civics class related activity and God forbid that they should do the same for the Republicans.

The same can be said for teaching economics, I can already see another coach teaching this in addition to history.

Do you think that civics should be taught in school so that everyone on a State level has the basics as concerns the working of our governments?

[SirFox]

It would be nice if the teachers who were teaching civics has a basic understanding of the workings of our governments, in San Antonio it seems the teachers think that walking the block for democratic candidates is a civics class related activity and God forbid that they should do the same for the Republicans.

The same can be said for teaching economics, I can already see another coach teaching this in addition to history.

Do you mean that some teachers are partial in San Antone?

Isn't that the problem with civics teachers overall? How can students best learn civics with little biaises? Hard question with a difficult answer, methinks.

We are currently experiencing the 8th or 9th night of riots in French cities. How do you teach the pros and cons of the actors and their scripts in such a situation? How do you handle very hot issues?

Should we teach our children to i-n-d-u-l-g-e? and if so in what?

[Sandy]

spare thanks for that test, you should email it to schools and challenge the teachers to take just to see what would happen. lol

[Wyvern75]

Partial isn't the problem, giving grades based on your participation in helping the Democrats (or any other party) is wrong.

A real teacher can teach without revealing his or her political or religious leanings. This is very hard for people who aren't teachers.

The French have been working very hard to create a situation so that Arab riots would happen. Perhaps if the French had imposed the assimilate or go home like they did to the Poles, White Russians, Hungarians and so on, things might not have happened. The same with the "social programs" that are part of European Socialism, being paid a living wage without having to work is a problem economically and socially, it allows disaffected people to do things that are anti-social. I have seen how the Germans treat the Turks and it isn't very nice.


Do you mean that some teachers are partial in San Antone?

Isn't that the problem with civics teachers overall? How can students best learn civics with little biaises? Hard question with a difficult answer, methinks.

We are currently experiencing the 8th or 9th night of riots in French cities. How do you teach the pros and cons of the actors and their scripts in such a situation? How do you handle very hot issues?

Should we teach our children to i-n-d-u-l-g-e? and if so in what?

[bonzzz4292]

unfortionatly the private schools sometimes are no better than the public schools. they premote bigitry in some cases.....we are better than you for instance.

[SirFox]

Partial isn't the problem, giving grades based on your participation in helping the Democrats (or any other party) is wrong.

A real teacher can teach without revealing his or her political or religious leanings. This is very hard for people who aren't teachers.

The French have been working very hard to create a situation so that Arab riots would happen. Perhaps if the French had imposed the assimilate or go home like they did to the Poles, White Russians, Hungarians and so on, things might not have happened. The same with the "social programs" that are part of European Socialism, being paid a living wage without having to work is a problem economically and socially, it allows disaffected people to do things that are anti-social. I have seen how the Germans treat the Turks and it isn't very nice.

---------------------------

I agree that teachers should not have political or religious leanings. We are on the other human. Don't you have a regulation in Texas about teachers who openly promote religion or are pro-party? In CT where I went to school...
that was a few years ago...SMILE...it was strickly forbidden to be a political advocate.

I do not think, WYVERN, that the French have been working very hard to create a situation.... Just like you in the States, we want peace at home. What has happened here, urban riots.. is also something that will ultimately arrive in the States...and that is a wake-up call for all of us. Remember Watts?

The problem is not uniquelly French unless you are anti-French which is your right BTW.

The problem is one that you will find in all of Europe, and in most of the Western world, one which this World cannot escape from. Essentially this happens to be mainly a north-south problem where people from the south have wanted to find a better life than the one they had in their own countries.

Just as you have many Mexicans, Central Americans and South Americans crossing into the US throw southern Texas, and other people from all over the World coming to your shores, even in San Antonio, BTW, we have people here coming to France.

France and the USA have at least one thing in common: we have traditionally been welcoming countries to those people who needed refuge for political, economic or whatever reasons. The first generation was able to integrate partially. The second either integrated completely or did not. Those that did not..are the ones who REFUSE to go to school, who are the poor living in extremely harsh conditions.

One difference between the two cultures is that while in the States, one has the ethos of work, the French simply, (watch out for the generalisations) do not wish to work. The ethos of work will actually get you somewhere. Do you find it normal that 1/3 of the (working) population pays for the other 2/3rds? I do not. That is the reverse of the coin.

It ain't only the rioters who are unhappy. Business folk are real unhappy as well because the "French elite" (the stuck up snobs of Paris), have lost touch with the overall situation in France.

To make matters worse, the French think that this problem is uniquely French. And Chirac should have left the government ages ago as he is sick.

Because of our colonial past and due to poor management years ago (or no management at all), we did not foresee this happening ( or did not want to see.)

No one has the right solution with the problems of urban young. No one has the right solution for the problems of the unemployed. No one has the solution for how to administer people in the most humane and decent way.

I believe that every human being has a right to live decently, (definition), and to be respected.

Where do we go from here?

That is the question.

[Wyvern75]

Deleted.

[SirFox]

WYVERN: Let me sit out on your remarks before I boil some potatoes or before the eggs fry up with my temper. No comment at this time.

I will return.
:lmao

[SirFox]

Deleted.