For Those Who Only Had An Eighth Grade Education

[Foxfyre]

did they get to use a calculator on the math part?

an abacus maybe.

Nope. We had to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide either in our head or with #2 pencil and Big Chief tablets.

 

[Foxfyre]

You left out the link in your quote.
The point of the Snopes article was that if your submerged in this test material just prior to the test you can pass it.
Just because a 40 year old can't name all the rivers in South America as quickly as a high school student that just put down the book that had them all listed can, doesn't mean that 40 yr old's education was lacking.
It just means the 40 y/o hasn't retained the information.

I was a straight-A student in Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus in HS but I couldn't tell you how to calculate a tangent angle to save my life these days

Agreed.

The point is that they DID pass this test. And more importantly, could 8th graders do it today?

Eighth graders? How many college graduates could pass it today?

 

[rdean]

Shows how dumb 8th graders were back then.......100 years later, nobody needs to know that shit

snopes.com: 1895 Exam

Shows how dumb 8th graders were back then.......100 years later, nobody needs to know that shit

So
People don't need to know how to write?
People don't need to be able to figure out if a bank is cheating them?
People don't need to know how to pronounce words correctly?
People don't need to be avle to tell when GoreBull (TM) warming experts are pulling a fast one?

Attitudes like yours are why stupidity is endemic.

You left out the link in your quote.
The point of the Snopes article was that if your submerged in this test material just prior to the test you can pass it.
Just because a 40 year old can't name all the rivers in South America as quickly as a high school student that just put down the book that had them all listed can, doesn't mean that 40 yr old's education was lacking.
It just means the 40 y/o hasn't retained the information.

I was a straight-A student in Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus in HS but I couldn't tell you how to calculate a tangent angle to save my life these days

And if you do a search on line for "Gold Medal" Middle Schools, their curriculum is amazing.
And look at these two "High School" science fair winners:

His prize this year was for a study involving the application of bacteria from an earthworm to a fungus that is lethal to amphibians.

and

Murray's project was called "Regiomontanus' Angle Maximization
Problem: Accounting for Distortion." It involved a famous optimization problem from a 15th century German mathematician.

2009's regional science fair winners repeat feat by taking gold medals in their divisions Saturday | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Just because a curriculum was difficult, doesn't mean everyone did well.

Conservatives live in the past. They think we should be identifying more words with a "silent e" than studying the foundation science of biology, botany and physiology, which, of course, is evolution.

 

[syrenn]

And if you do a search on line for "Gold Medal" Middle Schools, their curriculum is amazing.
And look at these two "High School" science fair winners:
His prize this year was for a study involving the application of bacteria from an earthworm to a fungus that is lethal to amphibians.
and
Murray's project was called "Regiomontanus' Angle Maximization
Problem: Accounting for Distortion." It involved a famous optimization problem from a 15th century German mathematician.
2009's regional science fair winners repeat feat by taking gold medals in their divisions Saturday | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Just because a curriculum was difficult, doesn't mean everyone did well.
Conservatives live in the past. They think we should be identifying more words with a "silent e" than studying the foundation science of biology, botany and physiology, which, of course, is evolution.

Agreed. Some young people are doing very well. However I believe that the vast majority of 8th graders are not. I dont think that the "test" should be exactly the same as the world has changed, my point is that the old test was "basic" general knowledge. I agree right along with the basic general knowledge that science needs to be included.

 

[syrenn]

Eighth graders? How many college graduates could pass it today?

Rather my point. Part of what the some college's are complaining about is that the are having to teach remedial basic classes.

So the saying " I only have an 8th grade education" actually meant something.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

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, KS, and reprinted
by the Salina Journal.


8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895


Grammar (Time, one hour)


1. Give nine rules...


Arithmetic (Time, 1:25 hours)


1. Name and define...


U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)


1. Give the epochs into which ...


Orthography (Time, one hour)


1. What is meant by...


Geography (Time, one hour)


1 What is climate...

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?!

The myths conservatives and other well meaning do-good-ers embrace and propose are almost always based on crappy correlations and/or observations of the past, which when embraced, pull the nation behind into turmoil, and not forward into the future, as a solution to problems and challenges of the present.

Here is what is wrong with looking in the rear view mirror and imagining you see solutions: Rote education fails the Information Age

Most school districts still are not teaching skills needed for the Information Age. Their administrations, as well as their staffs, are behind in understanding that we are way beyond the Industrial Age.

For the most part, they are teaching the classical three Rs. I am not talking about reading, writing and `rithmetic; I am talking about rote, repetition, and routine. All of these add up to regimentation, which is what was needed to assimilate people into the Industrial Age workforce. At that time, those skills were needed on an assembly line that required repetitive actions. Public schools prepared a workforce for jobs in mass production facilities or, being more politically accurate, factories.

...

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Eighth graders? How many college graduates could pass it today?

Rather my point. Part of what the some college's are complaining about is that the are having to teach remedial basic classes.

So the saying " I only have an 8th grade education" actually meant something.

The myths conservatives and other well meaning do-good-ers embrace and propose are almost always based on crappy correlations and/or observations of the past, which when embraced, pull the nation behind into turmoil, and not forward into the future, as a solution to problems and challenges of the present.

Here is what is wrong with looking in the rear view mirror and imagining you see solutions: Rote education fails the Information Age

Most school districts still are not teaching skills needed for the Information Age. Their administrations, as well as their staffs, are behind in understanding that we are way beyond the Industrial Age.

For the most part, they are teaching the classical three Rs. I am not talking about reading, writing and `rithmetic; I am talking about rote, repetition, and routine. All of these add up to regimentation, which is what was needed to assimilate people into the Industrial Age workforce. At that time, those skills were needed on an assembly line that required repetitive actions. Public schools prepared a workforce for jobs in mass production facilities or, being more politically accurate, factories.

...

as I was saying...

 

[Granny]

did they get to use a calculator on the math part?

an abacus maybe.

Nope. We had to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide either in our head or with #2 pencil and Big Chief tablets.

- but oh so true!!