Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cubanlord]

over the centuries.

Are the People of the World Being Dumbed Down?

How do you stack up with eighth graders of more than one hundred years ago?

The following document was transcribed from the original document in the collection of the SmokyValley Genealogy Society, Salina, Kansas. This test is the original eighth-grade final exam for 1895 from Salina, KS.

An interesting note is the fact that the county students taking this test were allowed to take the test in the 7th grade, and if they did not pass the test at that time, they were allowed to re-take it again in the 8th grade.

Smoky Valley Genealogical Society
EXAMINATION GRADUATION QUESTIONS
OF SALINE COUNTY, KANSAS
April 13, 1895
J.W. Armstrong, County Superintendent.

************************


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 do, lie, lay 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)

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 weights 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. Per bu., deducting 1050 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 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 per cent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per m?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 per cent.
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, Whtney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865.

*******************************************


ORTHOGRAPHY
(Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthogaphy, 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�.
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, super.
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 N.A.
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.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give 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 inclination of the earth.



BIOLOGY
(45 ninutes)

1. Where are the saliva, gastric juice, and bile secreted? What is the use of each in digestion?
2. How does nutrition reach the circulation?
3. What is the function of the liver? Of the kidneys?
4. How would you stop the flow of blood from an artery in the case of laceration?
5. Give some general directions that you think would be beneficial to preserve the human body in a state of health.

*********************************************

[blackjack]

What's a
bushel?
rod?
Principal Parts of a verb?
how many pounds in a ton?
caret?
elementary sounds?
fane?
fain?

I have heard of most of them but have no idea the answers

[ChopChaeJoe]

Looks like a bunch of rote learning that someone could learn in a single weekend, or afternoon. I wouldn't say the students were being dumbed down, but to be fair, life moved a bit slower then and capable farm and machine workers were needed more than a creative, adaptable workforce.

I'm sure a lot of people still failed tests like these though.

[ChopChaeJoe]

Principal parts, that's funny.

[air76]

It was also common practice to teach children to memorize passages from poems and novels back then as "education." While there is plenty of room in every education system for improvement, the idea that we're educated at a lower level than 100 years ago is rubbish....that's like saying we're not given the same level of education any more because they've eliminated Latin classes.

[ChopChaeJoe]

I think the point is that education 100 years ago was rudimentary and crude.

[djsmnc]

I believe a lot of the kids who were actually fortunate enough to attend school at that time finished around 8th grade. They had to answer the types of questions in the test at the threat of having their knuckles rapped.

[schwa]

Theres a nice analysis of why this test isnt evidence of watered-down education nowadays here: http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

But at the same time you'd be hard-pressed to find western schoolkids who can follow a typical passage by Dickens, for example, even though he wrote for popular consumption in his day. Let alone read it for pleasure. I'd say something has been lost in the ability to understand or use english much beyond simple declarative sentences.

I'd also suggest that kids today are not being sufficiently educated about many cultural touchstones that have informed centuries of thought & writing, rendering them incapable of appreciating a lot of great stuff.

[young_clinton]

Were the children back in those days better thinkers than the children today? Were they more capable of understanding of how things work and are put together? I don't think so. Nowadays people need to know so many more things than back in the late 1800's. Actually at any point in time a modern person could go back and concentrate on those topics and learn them if it was advantageous to do so. It would be much more difficult for someone from the 1800's to understand what many people understand today.

[Fox]

[Fox]

With regards to the topic at hand, what I see in that test is a lot of things that, while it certainly couldn't hurt to know them, certainly aren't by any means necessary or even particularly useful to know. The things that are necessary or useful, on the other hand, are still taught.

For example, while a student might not be taught the specific names or rules listed in the grammar section, they could probably write a 150 word essay that demonstrated most, if not all, of the rules. While they might not be able to name the Fundamental Rules of Arthithmetic, they could probably do most of the calculations listed on the test. And most of the questions in biology are still handled in class as well.

In short, with regards to practical application I see little change at all. It's only terms of theory and abstraction that our educational system has changed. Whether that's good or bad depends on how highly you value what has replaced the previous teaching of theory and abstraction. If I have to choose between students learning how to write, "A bank check, a promisary note, and a receipt," and students learning basic computer use, for example, I'll pick basic computer use.

This test also doesn't seem to indicate how well students did on it. If half the class wasn't able to list all of the republics of Europe and their associated capitol cities, then the fact that it was on the test isn't particularly meaningful with regards to real evaluation of educational level.

[Steelrails]

Read articles written by say, George F. Will or Pat Buchanan or even Maureen Dowd and then compare them to the 30 something blowhards. You can tell that those authors actually read their Shakespeare and Milton and committed it to memory.

Reminds me of Chris Matthews' interview with Kevin James. Kevin james was calling Obama an appeaser like Neville Chamberlain. I don't know how Matthews picked up on it, but he knew James had no idea what Chamberlain did. For two minutes he repeatedly asked James "What did Neville Chamberlain do?" For two minutes all James could do was say "he was an appeaser, he appeased." Finally he admitted he had no clue.

James is a product of today's 'critical thinking', dumbed-down education system. All critical, no thinking. Rote memorization may have its flaws, but it makes sure that you know it. And when you do know it, it doesn't leave you. This whole 'critical-thinking' vs. 'rote-memorization' thing is so silly. If one had any critical thinking they'd realize how important it is to remember key information and how to train the brain to do so. A lot of it comes off as sour grapes from LS&A students contemptuous of those with an aptitude for math. I know because I was once one of those LS&A students, and yes, that was me projecting my sour grapes/insecurity.

The funny thing is their creativity is lacking too. All their papers were were a bunch of cited sources and a rambling point that wasn't too well thought out. I'm sorry but I haven't seem some great flowering of artistic creativity over the last 20 years. I have seen a great dumbing down of educational standards. People may have great ideas, but they aren't being taught the structure or discipline to implement them. Great you unleashing your students creative energy, but your unwillingness to discipline and shape is turning that energy into unfocused ADDness.

Some of the stuff on that test was just obscure or outdated. There is a reason for technology after all. I was surprised there were not any questions about shorthand. Other stuff is core stuff that we should know, but it just seems irrelevant. Certainly there should be more for Natural Sciences. Computer education would obviously be important. But a lot of the stuff, we really should know, and know it well.

I also think education is geared towards specialization. I see this in myself-

[Fox]

[Fox]

[Steelrails]