Monday, April 17, 2017

SPEL KAT




What 8th graders knew in 1910
extrapolate





I post this 1910 graduation test every 10 years. Nobody here will answer all correctly, but you get the idea. 

12 comments:

pdwalker said...

I'd fail it.

Anonymous said...

I used to know some of that. Then came the demon drink, after that I didn't need to know anymore. -Anymouse

Anonymous said...

But, but, I know what Kim Kardashian wore yesterday! I should get credit!

Eskyman said...

Today, 99% of TEACHERS would not be able to answer those questions.

Most would not be able to read the introduction and understand it; hardly any would know who the various "historical people" and "great men" were, or why they were worthy of renown. Very few would have any knowledge or understanding of American history. Most of today's teachers just "know" that America is bad; because white men/racism/misogyny/bigotry/xenophobia.

Today's teachers are well-versed in only one thing: glorifying socialism, while concealing its many deadly faults.

toadold said...

The other problem is the student's hand writing would have to be legible for the essay questions. Copper Plate anyone?

toadold said...

My bad, I meant Palmer method. Lasted in some areas until the 1950's IIRC?

drew458 said...

Yeah, well, the thing about grade school, they make you memorize a whole bunch of stuff you'll never use again. Maybe 1/10th of 1% stays in the dark corners of your mind, but most of it is lost. But those kids had just studied all those things in class, then gone over their textbooks, so they had it down. 20 years later I doubt if 4 of them could pass the test again. Heck, I used to be a TA for calculus. I couldn't do a derivative right now if you paid me. Utterly worthless knowledge, but I used to know several ways to do it.

poletax said...

Seems just my elementary larnin got me thru.The 3 Rs if you will?
Can't remember using French or Boolean Algebra.

Anonymous said...

I think I'm pretty well-educated, but I don't have a fuckin' clue what the plural of "tongs" is.

Moo-lin-yan Nabo-li-don

Anonymous said...

Fat chance in me ever making it out of grade school under those conditions. Regarding college, I had such a good time in those four years, that I stretched it into six.

Sir H the Comet

Rodger the Real King of France said...

Plural of tongs= two tongs

David aka True Blue Sam said...

Those kids could also tell you how to survey a section into various size properties: 320, 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10, with the dimensions for each part. Give them the dimensions of a crib and they could tell you how many bushels it would hold. Growing up in the 60's, teachers kept telling me how hard the English system is and how easy metric would be. They did not know anything. Chains, rods, links, are all darned easy to use, but those teachers had never learned it. Let me count my steps and I can tell you how many acres you have. (1 ac = 10 sq chains).Your teacher never told you that, did she?

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