Are You Smarter than an 8th Grader from 1895??

reply to post by denynothing


You have not given one example to prove your stance. Not a single one.

I could pass that exam, but not much more. I can do all the math ones except #1 and #10, assuming that I knew all the imperial conversions, like rods, which I could look up and learn in 5 minutes. (as I grew up using metric) I could get most of the orthography and geography ones. (assuming that I used today's geography and not 1895 geography) I'd be in big trouble on the grammar section; while I can use correct grammar, I don't know specifically most of the formal rules. For punctuation, for instance, I know when to use all the commas, question marks, colons, and so on, but I've never had anybody actually explain it to me in school; I just figured it out by observing what was done in books and following that. I'd flunk the history section, even though I know a fair amount of history, because I don't know as much American history. I could do 2,3, and most of 7, and parts of 8 on a good day. (haven't a clue on the history of Kansas :p)

The real test, though, is not whether I can do that exam NOW, but whether I could have done it at age 13. Without preparation, I'd have failed it then, but had the curriculum actually been teaching that stuff, I'd have had no problems. I could've likely still passed the math part even then, as I've always been good at math, but the rest I'd probably fail if I were just handed that exam in grade 8 on a moment's notice.

reply to post by unityemissions


What example do you mean, you believe that children who learn what is known are not making the society more intelligent. I say that is not true, if a child learns all of what a society knows about biology by age 18, then that leads to more discovery to increase the edges of knowledge. I don't get what you don't understand about this. It's not like we have kids going out in the world and randomly making discoveries. The kids that go to school, and go to college will be more intelligent than the previous generation, it's simple logic. My father is done learning for the most part, I however am not. I will go to college learn about the chemistry discoveries they have made within the last 20 years. I will learn about how they can cure genetic blindness in apes. Why is that happening because the previous generation stretched their intelligence about genetics and genetic diseases. Which will lead to my generation taking that information and expanding upon it. If the generations never got smarter then teachers would be out of business, and there would be no such thing as innovation just the same thing over and over again.