Stopping Schooling at 8th Grade? huh? Take a look...

[samba2nite]

 

I thought my hive mind friends would enjoy this....

 

 

 

 

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 8th grade final exam from 1895 Kansas. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society Library Salina Kansas

 

 

 

 

8th Grade Final Exam-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?!

[Mrs Mungo]

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

[mom2denj]

WOW! Not knowing MOST of these really makes me feel uh......dumb!

 

Is there an answer key! I feel like I need to study and memorize all of these answers.:tongue_smilie:

 

This definitely gives another meaning to "I only have an 8th grade education"!

[mom2denj]

Oh good! i just read this. Makes me feel a little better. :D

 

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

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

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

Yes, but I am confused. It does not seem that snopes says that the test is a fake. I think snopes is arguing that you cannot say that that test means that education was more rigorous way back then:confused: At least that is what I think it says and I am not sure I agree with snopes. My grandfather only had up to an 8th grade education in the 1910-20s and I sincerely believe it was more rigorous. Plus look at many of the old text books since see to me way more rigorous than todays, but I could be wrong.

[DarlaS]

I'm fairly certain I could no longer pass most of the tests I took back in high school.

[Mejane]

meh. I'd bet they were teaching to the test even a-way back when. ;)

[jenL]

meh. I'd bet they were teaching to the test even a-way back when. ;)

 

:lol:

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I'm fairly certain I could no longer pass most of the tests I took back in high school.

 

:iagree: I do agree with this. I am confused by what snopes was saying though. I cannot help but believe that school was more rigorous back then. I believe if you compare that test to a typical 8th grade test today, then the one from back then would be more difficult. I could be wrong:) Can someone help me out here to understand what snopes is saying?

[Jean in Newcastle]

But they taught to the test back then. The principal parts of speech etc. were memorized and recited. If we did the same, we would be able to pass that test too.

 

So how do we evaluate it?

 

For grammar, I would bet that an 8th grader who had taken a course like Analytical Grammar would be able to diagram a couple of fairly difficult sentences (which the 1895 exam did not require). They would be able to use punctuation and capitalization correctly. And they would be able to write a 150 word essay. My 7th grader could do all of that. He could also tell you what a verse, stanza and paragraph is. He would not be able to reproduce the lists of things because he has not been asked to memorize those things as part of a list.

 

For math, many of the units at that time are basically obsolete now - like bushels. I bet that my 7th grader (who is doing Jacobs' Mathematics: A Human Endeavor) could answer problems of volume, weight, area, and figure out interest and money problems that were more up to date. He could also write a check and a receipt. Are promissory notes still a common item?

 

U.S. History - my 7th grader could answer questions 2, 3, 4, 7 (except for Howe). I don't doubt that he could learn a list of the epochs of US history fairly easily. We don't live in Kansas but he could give you some basic information on our state. Is the Rebellion the Civil War? By the end of this year he should be able to tell you about 3 major Civil War battles (we're studying American history this year). He's never been given a list of dates and events but if he were directly taught that he'd be able to reproduce that by the end of 8th grade.

 

Orthography - (basically this means spelling, right?) I don't find most of these questions and terms necessary outside of a degree in linguistics. He could answer the questions on prefixes and syllabification as well as use words correctly in a sentence.

 

Geography - my 7th grader could answer questions on climate, rivers, and oceans. Depending on what exactly they are looking for, he could describe the mountains of N. America. Many of the places he could not place but those which are more important in our day, he could. The last of the questions he could not answer and reflects a weakness in my curriculum.

Edited March 14, 2010 by Jean in Newcastle

[at the beach]

It appears to me that there were no multiple choice questions on that exam. That appears to be a huge difference in the way most kids are tested nowadays, regardless of subject matter.

[FaithManor]

It probably was very rigorous in its day. But, there's just so much more information for kids to be exposed to these days.

 

For one thing, since the industrial revolution it has become far more important for children to learn the fundamentals of science. Notice that no knowledge of science except principles of climate/weather/ etc. were asked about. Yet, by 1895 there had been a huge leap in scientific knowledge and even its applications in farming and botany. They hadn't quite caught up at school.

 

The math was appropriate for what they needed to know back then. My 7th grader can do similar problems but in different terms. He may not have the "how many bushels in a ton" memorized but on the other hand, can very neatly convert celsius into farenheit and vise versa.

 

Yes, we don't know the geography but then we do know more world history which I think is very important. This test seemed to be totally "U.S." only thinking as if, except for Columbus, there wasn't much that happened before Jamestown was founded. Maybe they studied that and just weren't questioned over it, but since this looks a little like "teaching to the test", then there is definitely a chance that mostly only U.S. history was taught.

 

The orthography questions were the real killers. Some of the terms I did know from working with Ds 10's speech therapist. She could probably breeze this section. Its apparently not something taught in academics anymore unless within a specific college major. But, I wonder if it is also that necessary.

 

I do think that school was a very serious thing back then. A lot more discipline...i.e. disrespect the teacher and either she'd whip you or pa would but somebody was going to inflict some pain on you for disrupting the classroom. Not saying that I'd be a big fan of going back to thrashing anybody with a pointer - NO WAY! But, classrooms have become very chaotic places that makes covering a lot of ground difficult. I think they got quite a bit done in each school day in 1895 by comparison to today.

 

I also think that in the case of the one room schoolhouse, the younger children really benefited from those older kids. Years of hearing "recitations" of information ahead of what you were actually studying, would give one a leg up in fact retention. Plus, an awful lot of arithemetic was done mentally and this probably really kept those brain cells humming.

 

So, there are aspects of it that seem a little daunting. On the other hand, I don't think most students from 1895 would be able survive my son's Apologia science tests. I will give them this, their reading and composition skills were probably better than the average kid today.

 

I don't actually feel that badly about it. I think that the knowledge set that children need today is much, much broader so hence though our 8th graders would be overwhelmed by that test, 1895's 8th graders would probably pass out over some of our kids math and science tests.

 

Faith

[jillian]

i definitely think it was rigorous. i look at it as most of us moms and dads and families on this board are trying to give our kiddos a rigorous education, one that helps them become well educated and able to find answers. i don't think many average "schooled" kids (those attending institutional schools) would be able to handle most of the kind of education we give our kiddos at home

[Mermaid Mama]

Yes, but I am confused. It does not seem that snopes says that the test is a fake. I think snopes is arguing that you cannot say that that test means that education was more rigorous way back then:confused: At least that is what I think it says and I am not sure I agree with snopes. My grandfather only had up to an 8th grade education in the 1910-20s and I sincerely believe it was more rigorous. Plus look at many of the old text books since see to me way more rigorous than todays, but I could be wrong.

 

I agree. I feel that when they focused on the 3 R's - they really got a good solid education. I don't doubt at all that my great grandmother could have answered all of those questions.

 

And where is the answer key?

 

I don't think Snopes is the end all be all!!!!! Who are these people anyway?