Thursday, June 14, 2012

Can you pass this test- if it was updated?

       WHAT GUMMINT DO
    
   

West Virginia Diploma Test - 1931

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Jodi Lou sent me this 1931 West Virginia Elementary School Diploma Test.  You can download the entire thing (,pdf) HERE.  Of course it will elicit the usual comparisons between then and now; the older you are the harsher the comparison.  But, this is what struck me the most. 

Res Ipsa Loquitur
Look at the Geography section.  The emphasis on the local economy and West Virginia itself hearkens back to a time when people saw themselves as citizens of their state first, and Americans second.  When Robert E. Lee was offered command of the Army of the Potomac in 1861,  the Virginian rejected the command  on the day after Virginia seceded.   It was with Virgina, he felt, that his sacred honor dictated he must follow.  And what a wonderful notion it was, federalism. 

It meant that if the state you lived in wasn't being governed to your satisfaction, you could vote with your feet and move to another. It was what the framers anticipated. All that ended with the election of FDR in 1932.

Yes, you can still  vote with your feet, but to little avail, since the Federals and their courts dictate what the states may, or may not do.    We have chained ourselves to a central government, so that today we are reduced to debating  passage of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s  “21st Century WPA Act” to reinstate the FDR's New Deal employment program.  Laut's estimated cost  —   through 2013?  — $250 billion!   I am positive Lautenberg would have failed this West Virginia test.

Here a 1910 test from Washington state.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

New Jersey needs to have it's statehood revoked.

Casca

Rodger the Real King of France said...

That's exactly what I propose. Rather than seceding from the union, the good states need to expel states like Jersey (neither action being prohibited by the constitution, btw).

molonlabe28 said...

I regard myself as a citizen of the Free State of Tennessee.

I agree that the Feds (and SCOTUS - Wickard v. Filburn) regard everything as interstate commerce and, hence, subject to domination by the Federal government.

Skoonj said...

I saw Lautenberg give a pitch for his WPA idea on TV this week. He said it would be just like FDR's WPA in 1935. He neglected to say that the original WPA didn't work. It impeded recovery, which didn't occur until AFTER World War Two. Also, at WPA camps, the rape of women was rampant, and virtually unreported. It seems FDR had the same kind of media support that the current commy has.

TimO said...

Schools have dumbed down every year since they hired all the hippies in the '60s-70s to go from rioting protesters to teachers/administrators. High School diplomas are now worthless and a 4-year college degree is equal to a High School degree from that era.

My son graduates college next year and looking around his campus it appears that at least 20-30% shouldn't be there and 25% or so should be in a trade/technical school. Most can't even put together a coherent sentence.

Billions and billions of dollars are being wasted just to make the kids feel good by getting a piece of nearly worthless paper.

rickn8or said...

TimO, you mean all this started about the time the U.S. Dept of Education was created and the teacher's unions got going?

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