Dumbing down the population?!! See if you can pass this 8th grade test from 1895

reply to post by Druid42


Cheater! Cheater! Pumpkin Eater!

I did take the test in a honest manner. If I were the teacher, I would grade my paper at a C- or maybe a D+. I googled the answers afterwards and while I was often on the right track, the answer was still wrong.

Crap! Time to hit the books agin.

I love these questions. These are questions i should know every answer to, but don't. I love the fact that it requires you to understand exactly what you are learning and why, which comprises learning 'parrot fashion' Which is all too common these days.

Thanks for sharing

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


I guessed most of the Geography, history, reading and Orthography [spelling] correctly, though I was stumped on some parts.

And just for sheets and giggles:

Orthography number 9:
~ I had to sight the building site so I could cite my findings in the report.
~He feigned fain when he went to the fane.
~The farmer tried in vain to fix the vane, but the tool slipped out of his hand and cut him across a vein.
~A bulldozer razed the land, so the company could raise a solar panel to catch the sun's rays.

i like how posters keep saying its an obsolete test. its not obsolete but very relevant. I cant answer those questions. education back then was based on the mcguffy readers. I am planning on buying the set just so i can read it through for myself. with 23% illiteracy in america that test shows how much we need to restore basic education again.

reply to post by Tardacus


I don't either.

I didn't realize they actually had grades back then. I thought everyone was in one little red school house classroom. Like Our Gang.

No disrespect to you OP but who cares how many people can memorize mind numbing 'facts' just to regurgitate them on an exam then......be judged/graded by your memory skills? Such nonsense.

Originally posted by TDawgRex

Originally posted by pavmas
reply to post by hellobruce

 

And finally ask a kid from 1895 to plab a journey 70 miles away, then would not be able to do it.

But the kid from 1895 would probably be able to spell.

The thing is, the kid from 2013 would be clueless and left adrift if the grid goes down. The kid with 1895 & 2013 knowledge would thrive.

So you got him on a typo. You just be smart. A gold star for you. Feel better?

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


I'm most interested in the section regarding the correct usage of the English Language as only English professors are the only ones who might even know the full set of grammatical rules. Some of the "math" section questions are only arithmetical calculations primarily aimed at farmers it seems, and some measurements standards such as rods are extinct. Regarding US History questions, past just names and dates which is superfluous information, depends on whose version you subscribe to. I'm pretty sure if I was to answer based off of my memory of Howard Zinn's Peoples' History I would get it correct in this age, and hung in their age. Geographical questions is an obsolete subject with the advent of google maps and gps, though I can understand why it was important in the days of horseback and railroads.

In general the questions looked more open ended than tests of today which is promoted by an educational system that endorsed critical reasoning skills. This skill set leads to independent population, which is something modern society does not want from its work force.

Here is today's 8th grade exam:

(Two hours)

1) Who was the first black President?
2) What causes global warming?
3) Why are guns bad?
4) What are "LOL" and "WTF" abbreviations for?
5) Name one Justin Bieber song.
6) What tattoo would you get, if you don't already have one?

We have such a disconnect between people and the earth. Any of those kids in 1895 would know how to plant a garden or raise livestock to feed themselves. The girls would know how to can and preserve foods. The boys would know how to fix and repair farm equipment and wagons, etc. Most people are totally dependent on technology they haven't got a clue how it works, let alone how to fix it. Yes, we have some very smart people in this world who can program computers, and calculate trajectories, etc. However, would they have the basic skills and knowledge to survive a SHTF event. Would they know what plants and herbs could be used for illness? Growing up on a farm or in the wilderness you learned how to problem solve utilizing whatever you had on hand. Incredibly intelligent individuals can reach for the stars but have very little understanding on how to live on this planet.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


@OP

Ask someone from 1895 how to use email, a computer, a car, what a definition of quantum physics or relativity is...etc, etc..

The population isn't any dumber. The population uses different knowledge that is more useful to the time in which it lives. That test is mostly regurgitation, which is most certainly not an indicator of how dumb or smart a population is. You study for that one hour before the test, regurgitate it, then never use it again.

Originally posted by VforVendettea
reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

 

School is meant to...
Break up the family,
Get children used to the idea of them having to work without pay (Go into a mall and try to buy something with that A you worked so hard to get),
To teach the used to authority figures,
To accept what they are told is the truth
Keep them from leaning to critically think and figure out situations.
In short to teach them to think like the slaves they are.

Schools are for animals, Academies are for humans.
Guess where they send the children of the masses.


Read the book 'The underground history of American education' (I think you can find it free to read online)

top marks for observation.
correct on all accounts.

a (blue-y) gold star for you.

reply to post by TDawgRex


The link was given earlier in the thread, I just opened the three links that said this thread should be in the hoax bin, and saw the link that gives other links to find out the information. You still have to answer the questions.

I did do a dry run through the test, but found some of the questions vague. Was the bushel they were referring to Jefferson's bushel, more closely called a "peck", or the standard bushel, which is 4 pecks, or 35 liters?

I grew up on a farm, so most of the questions were familiar to me.

The question is, did I cheat, because I didn't know the answers, or was I smarter because I knew where to look for the answers?

Originally posted by Tardacus
I don`t believe that is an 8th grade test from 1895.

O yea ?

I've seen 5th grade tests from 1940's more difficult than anything I had in High school and I only graduated about a decade ago.

If we don't teach difficult things, we will never learn them....no matter what age.

You could in theory teach 5th grade students what 12 grade students would learn in a year, and I would be willing to be that 40-50% of them would do just fine given enough time.

reply to post by TheToastmanCometh

Orthography number 9: ~ I had to sight the building site so I could cite my findings in the report. ~He feigned fain when he went to the fane. ~The farmer tried in vain to fix the vane, but the tool slipped out of his hand and cut him across a vein. ~A bulldozer razed the land, so the company could raise a solar panel to catch the sun's rays.

Hilarious!

You get an "A".

It's actually not that hard a test, except for the Kansas specific areas, considering that people in different parts of the country back then wouldn't have been so specific to another area of the country (say you lived in New England the test would probably name your state in those areas)

Although I noted a few areas where the operations have changed such as the math section, and they certainly don't break US history up into EPOCH's anymore..

Originally posted by pavmas
reply to post by hellobruce

 

A kid in 2013 could work any technolgy from 1895 a kid from 1895 would not get past windows login.


Give me a 2013 kid anytime.

Absolutely not. Kids these days have no common sense. I about lost it when i was driving one of my friends 16 year old kid around in my 1974 mustang. When i made a turn and he saw the turn signal blinking, he said "wow how does it know when you are turning, i thought only newer cars did that!"

Originally posted by tinhattribunal

I once went to a really good high school (in the great lakes region), and probably could pass a test like that,
but then I moved to the southwest and couldn't believe how dumbed down the schools were there.

Especially in Geography class huh? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Originally posted by LucidDreamer85

If we don't teach difficult things, we will never learn them....no matter what age.

You could in theory teach 5th grade students what 12 grade students would learn in a year, and I would be willing to be that 40-50% of them would do just fine given enough time.

I worked for a community college as a teaching assistant for computer science classes. We had a 12 year old in one of my classes and he had ALREADY COMPLETED college level calculus 1, 2, AND 3!!! He was home schooled and though at his age group for reading he was incredibly advanced in his math and sciences. Given the opportunity I think children enjoy learning. They just have to be presented it in a way that keeps their attention and makes it "fun".

Don't know about 1895, but I was discussing the change in classes between when we went to school (70's and 80's) and where the emphasis is now with my kids' 7th grade science teacher. We noted that science and math have really been pushed forward while language arts and social studies have been been dumbed down unbelievably.

My son (8th grade) is currently in Algebra Foundations (I took that in 9th) and his science class encompassed chemistry (10th grade for me) and physics (11th grade). My daughter (7th grade) worked on math over the summer, so is in Algebra I (my 10th grade class) and her science class is studying the genetics & mendel squares I got in 9th grade.

In the meantime, the social studies is so dumbed down I couldn't believe the textbook. Thankfully, my kids have teachers that pretty much ignore the book and dive into the material in an interesting fashion. In language arts, they are still doing GUIDED READING! Like, turn on the CD player and read along - for 7th and 8th grade! It's driving my daughter so insane, we cut a deal with the school to put her on independent study. She's 7th grade, will independent study 8th for the rest of the year, then skip to 9th grade English next year.

I joked to the science teacher that it's because TPTB need workers who can work, but can't read or remember history. I'd have felt a lot better if she had laughed.