Ping for later
I wish they still taught this to 8th graders maybe the economy wouldn’t be in shambles and careening towards socialism
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
One of the questions has a metric conversion in it...would this have really been on an 1895 test?
It probably wasn’t really an 8th grade test... http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/a/1895exam.htm
My wife and I have been reading the “Little House” books to our 7yr old, and he really likes them. There are some incredible examples of elementary school children diagramming sentences and correctly labeling all parts of speech, reciting speeches, poetry, and dramatic soliloquy from memory, and reciting the history of the United States beginning with the landings in Jamestown. This was in the 1880’s and children as young as 16 were teaching school without the benefit of a college degree. It is a real eye opener.
Joe Farah (Worlde Net Daily) published this test several years ago.
Dumbing down: the proof [a copy of a test for 11-year-olds from 1898]
Geography (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
e.z., climit is the earth gettin warmer cuz of conservatives n rednecks burnin carbon to make carbon global warmin. Ms. teacher sez alGore tole her so it muss be true,
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
thats them conservatives agin, kuz kansas done voted fur two menny conservatives, and their global warmin their state till its burnt up. Ms. teacher sez alGore tole her so it muss be true,
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
rivers soak up global warmin gases, n that aint so bad win the gases goes away to another state, lessin yourin that other state, then you get burnt up stead of the conservatives getin burnt up, the ones thats ruinin the global wit all they're warmin. Ms. teacher sez alGore tole her so it muss be true,
4. Describe the mountains of North America
the mountains ar kinda like the plains but higher n ruggeder, and their turrible places fur wind mills cause them windmills is eyesores, n thats why holland duz such a gud joba hidin they're wind mills, cuz nobodie'd wanna see such ugly stuff, even thow wind mills dont cause global warmin cept they make people think electricijuice iz okay when its not cuz it causes warming n gets us burnt up. Ms. teacher sez alGore tole her so it muss be true,
8. ... Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
ewe guessed it, global warmin agin, them conservative carbon gases iz bubblin in the Pacific n makin it warm up lik a soda bin left out in the sun. Ms. teacher sez alGore tole her so it muss be true,
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
well, first it swirls round till it forms clouds n soaks up all the acid from conservatives' factories n gives us acid rain n then the acid rain kills the trees and runs off the farms with nitrates that kills the litl fish, n finally the acid nitrate water gets to the dams that kill the salmon n big fish, n if it goes thru a nukular power plant, the acid nitrate water gets all radioactive, so it can burble thru the reactur n make the animals downstream glow in the dark n die, n else the acid nitrate water goes through a regular power plant where it gits heated up to where it kills the aquatic plants n then runs down to poison the cute bares win their tryin to ketch dinner in the acid rain nitrate farm runoff overheated water. Ms. teacher sez alGore tole her so it muss be true,
A classical education is a wondrous thing to have. I have some of it, but it was at the beginning of the involvement of the Feds when education was drastically dumbed down.
How many people actually graduated or even made it to 8th grade in Kansas in 1895? My guess is that if you the same percentage of kids would graduate today as did back in the 19th century (if you taught the same subjects). Or vice versa, how would 19th century kids do if they had to take todays calculus, chemistry and physics classes?
Very impressive, but if you think about what kids are learning today, we could stump a few 19th century Kansans.
1. When designing a financial spreadsheet, should you start with a DOS or Windows platform?
2. Two cars drive from Altoona to Biscayne, a distance of 120 miles. One travels 50 mph. The other travels 40 mph and makes but drives in reverse for ten minutes. When does the first car arrive? The second?
3. Celia downloads 14 ring tones on her cell phone. Brian downloads 40% more. Brian attempts to download ten from his landline. How many total ringtones are downloaded?
The kids in Kansas would have been unfamiliar with these things, and would have had a harder or perhaps impossible time trying to answer them. A lot of the toughness of the Kansas example is due to our unfamiliarity with the references. Most of us are not farmers any more.
My kids could do a lot of this, and they’re tiny.
Kids memorize. Giving them “surveys” is fun, but it’s educationally a waste of time.
http://www.classicalconversations.com/Foundations.htm
This year we learned what happened in 24 different time periods in American History, 24 English grammar rules (such as: “An Infinitive is “to” added to a verb used as a noun, adjective or adverb”, 180 timeline facts in order from “Creation” to “Modern America”, times tables to 15x15 and other math rules (like the area of a triangle, circle, square, and rectangle, associative law, commutative law, etc.), the U.S. states and capitals along with U.S. mountains, rivers, canals, bays, and other prominent features. and all the Latin grammar required to recite John 1:1-7 in said language. We also learned grammar rules for Latin and 24 science facts (such as: Q: What is your endocrine system? A: glands and organs that use hormones to send messages through the bloodstream to the rest of your body”.
Many of the 9-year-olds have it mastered.
Congratulations, this was linked to NRO by Jonah Goldberg this afternoon.