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

We struggle to answer those questions because we are not taught the answers to them. We are not taught the answers to them because most of that knowledge is of no use today.

Likewise, do you think students from 1895 would be able to pass the tests of today? No, because they were taught a completely different knowledge set. The conclusions you are forming are totally flawed.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


This is a great post...id have to say cause so much is out of context some of the test is hard because we learned in a different way. I can't recited the 9 rules of capitol letters but would probably follow all 9 rules without knowing it.

The main thing that shot out right away was the math. In 8th grade I was doing Algebra if I remember correctly which was a hell of a lot harder than their math.

With that said I feel that education maybe back then gave you more common sense and life skills. When I think of the countless hours of advanced mathematics and science that I took really ended up being a waste for my career. Even though I am hugely passionate about math and science....it wasn't really needed nor is it for most professions.

I think high schools need to add a common sense class.

I fail.

I replaced all my school learning with porn years ago.

Also

6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.

-The 1st Death Star battle
-The Battle of Hoth
-The 2nd Death Star battle

Originally posted by Human_Alien
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.

Memorize 5 hours worth of testing from all subjects?? If they can do that then we ARE lacking!!

You could teach me every subject for half a year and there is no way I memorize 5 hours worth for a test! No way in heck!!

There aren't 5 questions here, this covers every subject.....So tell me how memorization comes into play? Maybe a couple of questions, but most are write a paragraph on why......That is not memorizing anything.....It is LEARNING!!

Originally posted by pirhanna
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.

Find me someone still alive and I would gladly ask them

It's like comparing apples and oranges to some extent, to compare then and now, but I can't help thinking that if 1895's grammar and arithmetic teachers were unleashed on today's students, we'd probably be the better for it.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the education system of today retained some of the hard headed, "3 Rs" mentality of those times while including all of the wonderful discoveries and playfulness of modern science and the arts?

We need more great teachers, teachers who can teach us how to teach.

Originally posted by intrptr
my mom tld me the other day that texting is going to put us to a new low she was like, it a bunch of run in senatnces with no forma nd a ton of mistakes. here is no paragraph capital letters or punctuation Every abbreviation is usd so yu don no wat the hell their talkig abot

Damn, spell check is a bitch to work backwards...

Here's my radical and controversial thought on the matter:

The whole written language is antiquated. We simply don't possess the verbiage to describe indescribable events which are not of our reality (Like OBE, NDE experiences or alien encounters etc) which will amp up with every new generation.

We need to become more telepathic. Animals, insects and fish are and they are way below us in the food chain.
An Asian parrot for instance has no trouble with communicating with a Jamaican one and yet Humans are still divided by over 7000 language barriers on this one tiny planet.

We can use our minds to transmit thought.But alas, we just don't have the patience to practice and we rely too much on society to tell us what to do from the moment we are born.
We're complacent lemmings.

As soon as I read the OP I thought of "Human Resources - Social Engineering in the 21st Engineering" A great documentary which really exposes the hidden agenda behind education. I believe education is quite simple, and if implemented correctly (instead of being a conveyor belt of submissive tax payers) could solve a lot of the world's major problems within a few decades.

Critical thinking should be the core of education, followed by tolerance, compassion, respect, politeness and all the other noble qualities most of us adhere to. Place an emphasis on the values of stable relationships. Teach all religions, then finish with the obvious truth - we don't know the answers.Teach the major advances in science we have made today and encourage progress to advance further.

Conditioning our young can work in a positive way. They deserve better than the nonsense - both inside and outside of school - which is injected into their minds these days.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

 

This stuff comes from 1895...half this stuff isn't even relevant anymore.

Half? Do you even know what half is? Can you even read?

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


Education today is all about bullying, teen pregnancy, guns, drugs, teachers who get paid to cheat on student testing, and teachers creeping. etc. Learning real school work such as your example from 1895 no longer exist.

Originally posted by nomnom
It's an obsolete test. The comparison is absurd. As the world has changed, so has our need for being edumacated towards various specifics within it.

I wonder how many people in the US graduated high school back in 1895 compared to 2012? Perhaps that would be a better marker for progress, or lack there of.

Well back then the real world came calling a lot earlier in life for most folks. Now days so many are confronted with the real world at some later date to find they dont know much.

Originally posted by sligtlyskeptical
This is old and been posted numerous times before. Your email contacts are a bit behind the times.

How would 1895 8th graders do on this test like this?
New York 2010 Final Science Test

The kids who can learn what is being taught today (many can't handle it), have a much more vast store of knowledge than their counterparts did in 1895.

The sum of all chemical reactions in the human
body is known as
(1) feedback
(2) metabolism
(3) dynamic equilibrium
(4) biological adaptation

The main function of hormones in the human
body is to
(1) identify and destroy microbes
(2) regulate body functions
(3) transport blood to cells
(4) store energy

Which human organ system produces sperm or
egg cells?
(1) digestive system (3) respiratory system
(2) nervous system (4) reproductive system

Naturally occurring variations within a species
are mainly the result of mutations and
(1) sexual reproduction
(2) dynamic equilibrium
(3) metabolism
(4) camouflage

During which process does a caterpillar become
a butterfly?
(1) fertilization
(2) metamorphosis
(3) asexual reproduction
(4) biological adaptation

edit on 18-2-2013 by sligtlyskeptical because: (no reason given)

Seriously? You're going to compare the 1895 test to a simple multiple choice test? That's laughable. No tests should be multiple choice. The only reason for them is to make it easy for the lazy teachers to grade. Memorization is easy. Critical thinking is hard. Anybody can learn the answers to a multiple choice test. The schools drill the answers into their heads to pass the SOL tests. They aren't learning anything other than random facts which might make them good trivial pursuit players. It won't help them become scientists or engineers. Public schools in their current form are a total waste of time in our society. They are about warehousing kids for 7 hours a day, so their parents can go to work. My kids can learn more in 2 hours at home on the computer than they can in 6 or 7 hours at a public school. Public schools have totally failed 80% of our children, so that the other 20% can feel smarter. Such a waste.

reply to post by Human_Alien

The whole written language is antiquated.

I agree. Thats why we have changed to Pictograms that speak "universally". In fact and I don't know if a thread has been done on this, I think that is the reason we find "picto - glyphs" on the walls of all ancient civilizations. Mayans and Egyptians ffor instance cover all their monuments with little pictures. We describe it as "language" but really they were as frustrated as we are with the growing number of different cultures and languages.

Our instruction manuals are in 7 languages. As empires grow they absorb the indigenous populations from the peoples they conquer and the government struggles with the need to communicate with all of them. I think in the end thats why language disappears and everything becomes "pictogram - ish". This is already becoming reality here out of necessity.

Signs

This test is definitely intended to test the success of the State of Kansas students schooling circa 1895. Kansas was, and still is, an agriculturally important state and the students taking the test could be supposed to be the future farmers of the state and such knowledge would be required of them to farm successfully.

I wonder though if parents of today even know what their children are being taught in their public schools. I suggest we turn all these surveillance cameras being added to every street and corner over to the Board of Educations so they could, instead, be installed in every public school classroom and attached to the internet. Parents with children in a public school could be given a pass code enabling them to tune into their children’s classes as observers. Students would pay better attention to their teachers, not knowing whether a parent was watching or not, and teachers would be more likely to bring their A-game for the same reason. I imagine parent/teacher conferences would then be much more productive. Classroom camera’s would probably reduce the truancy rate as well.

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by Human_Alien

 

The whole written language is antiquated.

I agree. Thats why we have changed to Pictograms that speak "universally". In fact and I don't know if a thread has been done on this, I think that is the reason we find "picto - glyphs" on the walls of all ancient civilizations. Mayans and Egyptians ffor instance cover all their monuments with little pictures. We describe it as "language" but really they were as frustrated as we are with the growing number of different cultures and languages.

It was picture propaganda......for the large numbers that couldnt read the accompanying script. Your better cultures always have means to break things down into sound and subtleties even if the use was restiriced to cast.

Also consider that if you had travled abroad back in those days.....the pictoral and royal iconography was basically the same from one majior culture to the next with some basic cultural nuance differential . The pictoral communications used at large by the Maya for example were used by the better meditarianin civilizations.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


I agree with you...we are certainly being dumbed down, and raised to depend on our tech.

The other day, I was calculating the cost over time for something, for someone who is a pretty average American Joe.... I did it in my head (first calculating it as tens, then adding the single digit calculation for the total) for him in a few seconds, and he looked at me as if I had 3 heads...

Amazing...and worse...scary.

At least in college, we're hit with the grammar ruler pretty hard again, for academic writing.

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

I would 2nd this.

Not that most of the questions are hard or anything, but a lot of those questions are asked in a sense that I wouldn't relate to a group of people that hold superstitions and religions in the highest regards.

Great post!

It's funny to see people trying to say it's no big deal. These are most likely Democrats and this brings us to the problem. The schools today are about the Teachers Unions. It's more about Pensions and Pay instead of teaching the kids. The Teachers Union is just an arm of the Democrat Party. So anytime someone criticizes public schools, the Democrats fight to keep the status quo because of the Teachers Unions.

Schools today are also places to mold Collective Citizens and encourage group think. So it's important to toe the social PC line and graduate a good worker.

Somehow, when I think about old people complaining about young people being 'dumber' than in the past, I don't think they mean in terms of education. They generally complain about how there is too much of an emphasis on book learning. That we have a great deal of abstract knowledge, but very little applicable, useful knowledge that can be applied to the real world in an intelligent and useful manner.
I honestly don't understand this "dumbing down" argument. I just looked up the average literacy rate in America at the turn of the century - about 50%. What percentage of the population even made it to the 8th grade back then?? If we look at the rate of education amongst the average American today, I'm sure no one could claim youth are learning less than past generations.
Additionally, the 'structure' of education has changed. Education nowadays is geared towards post-secondary. We prepare children for advanced degrees, instead of for practical knowledge for their lives. This is why you are a "failure" if you do not go beyond a high school diploma.

Originally posted by WaterBottle
Why is this not in the hoax bin? This isn't a test for 8th graders.

www.truthorfiction.com...
www.snopes.com...

edit on 19-2-2013 by WaterBottle because: (no reason given)

edit on 19-2-2013 by WaterBottle because: (no reason given)

Hoax bin this stupid post, please mods!

2nd line.