8th-grade exams

Getting out of the 8th-Grade - in 1910

This is a follow-up of yesterday's TAKS entry.  Graduating grade school in 1910 was a major big deal.  Before reaching that point many kids were put to work on the farm, or in factories.  For those who did graduate,  high school was no sure thing, and college was pretty much out of the question for all but the swells. Still, those kids comprised a labor force that went on to make the United States the most technologically advanced nation in the world.  I'm speculating, but as this 1910  Olympia WA graduation exam indicates, those kids received an education not far removed from what some of today's college graduates receive.  Here's an example: “   READING 1-5. One selection in prose and one in poetry from eighth grade reading book. (50 credits) (not included)    6. Name five American poets, and give a quotation from each.    7. Who wrote the following?       The Village Blacksmith.       Rip Van Winkle.       The First Snowfall.       The Great Stone Face.       The Raven.    8. Quote two stanzas of "America."    9. Quote a stanza from one of the poems mentioned in question 7.     (There once was a man from Nantucket ... FAIL)   10. Give in your own words the meaning of the following:       "To him who, in the love of Nature, holds       Communion with her visible forms, she speaks       A various language: for his gayer hours       She has a voice of gladness, and a smile       Into his darker musings with a mild       And healing sympathy, that steals away       Their sharpness ere he is aware." ” Try is yourself (HERE)  or print it out (.PDF)  PS - raise your hand if you think you could use a slide rule today.  Use it or lose it, and I cannot.