What did a Leaving Cert exam paper look like 80 years ago?

[barryqwalsh]

THE LEAVING CERT was an altogether different rite of passage for students of the early 20th century, when only a small minority of children progressed to post-primary education.

For young men who sat the exam 80 years ago, the Leaving Cert was a gateway to elite society. But the syllabus for young women – focused on practical skills, and fluency in French or German - was intended to prepare them for a life of domesticity.

We got our hands on the domestic economy paper from 1935, which specifies that only female students were allowed to sit the exam, to see how it compares to today’s home economics curriculum. These days, the subject serves a far less conservative purpose. It is, according to the Department of Education, concerned now “with the way individuals and families manage their resources to meet physical, emotional, intellectual, social and economic needs.”

But were the questions asked of students 80 years ago all that different to those being asked now? Let’s take a look.


What did a Leaving Cert exam paper look like 80 years ago

 

[Mr. H.]

I've got my dad's 8th grade diploma. It's over 80 years old.

 

[Picaro]

Making it to the 8th grade was nothing to sneer at in those days. It was an accomplishment.

 

[Mr. H.]

Dad never went back to school after the 8th grade. The Chicago clientele made fun of his European accent so he figured "fuck this" and hopped a boxcar to Oklahoma to live with his cousins.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Mr Lusby, of Dublin’s Institute of Education described the questions on Shakespeare’s Othello, on the consequences of the implied weakness of the female characters, Desdemona and Emilia, and the implied simplicities of a macho military society as thought-provoking and adept at matching the relevance of the 17th century drama to the issues of our own time.

Leaving Certificate English poetry was kindest most user-friendly selection in decades - Independent.ie

 

[barryqwalsh]

How does an engineer fare with the Leaving Cert paper?

UCD’s David McKeown sees whether he can ace this year’s Engineering examination.

How does an engineer fare with the Leaving Cert paper