Geez, I feel kinda dumb >.<

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**Lordhat**

Found this on a website which is not appropriate to link here:

NSFW Site wrote:
WHAT IT TOOK TO GET AN 8TH GRADE EDUCATION IN 1895...
Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

GRAMMAR (TIME, ONE HOUR)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications..
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

ARITHMETIC (TIME,1 HOUR 15 MINUTES)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft.. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

U.S. HISTORY (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

ORTHOGRAPHY (TIME, ONE HOUR)
[Do we even know what this is??]
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals& nbsp;
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, f ain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

GEOGRAPHY (TIME, ONE HOUR)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?! Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO, I don't have the answers!

**SilverMK2**

You have to remember it is not just a case of things being more "difficult", but also of things being different.

I agree in many cases, the actual content of older exams tends to be more difficult, but saying "generation Z does not even know what A is, let alone how to solve it" is not exactly fair, as generation Z has not been taught A, so cannot be expected to be able to solve it.

Again, the fact that the way things are taught now are different to how they were will have an effect on how "difficult" people find any given subject when taken back in time.

**Kragura**

I agree at our school we are broken into three main catagories extension midband and foundation with the majority being in midband and foundation and around 60 people are extension students (including me). now although the school recognises us as the more intelligent students, I doubt I could pass a midband exam as I have no idea what they have leared during the year.

**Ahtman**

The people who passed that test would still soil themselves if you showed them a computer. I know how to turn on a computer therefore I is smartr.

**JEB_Stuart**

Ahtman wrote:The people who passed that test would still soil themselves if you showed them a computer. I know how to turn on a computer therefore I is smartr.

Found you Ahtman

**dogma**

That isn't really all that different from what I remember of 8th grade. The biggest difference is the explicit focus on orthography, which (if I remember right) is rolled into a general 'English' or 'Grammar' section.

**JEB_Stuart**

dogma wrote:That isn't really all that different from what I remember of 8th grade. The biggest difference is the explicit focus on orthography, which (if I remember right) is rolled into a general 'English' or 'Grammar' section.

So you had a Kansas history section? I didn't even know Kansas had a history worth mentioning....

**dogma**

We had Illinois history, which was pretty much just the life-and-times of Abe Lincoln, plus the occasional mention of Al Capone.

But yeah, Kansas...

That place regularly comes up during arguments over 'which state is the worst'.

**SilverMK2**

I didn't even know America had history. 300 years is pretty much current events to us Brits

**Cheese Elemental**

SilverMK2 wrote:I didn't even know America had history. 300 years is pretty much current events to us Brits

Bah, try living in a nation that's only 108 years old. I feel so insignificant.

**George Spiggott**

ARITHMETIC (TIME,1 HOUR 15 MINUTES) [Internet not used to look up measures or any other information]

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.

Pass

2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft.. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

How big is a bushel?

3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?

How much does a bushel weigh?

4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?

I don't see the connection. 7x50=$350 should I add the $104?

5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.

Who buys coal by the lbs when it's only $6 per ton!!! Somebody help me out, how many lbs in a ton?

6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

7% per what? month, year? Is it compound interest?

7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?

Do you mean square meter? If it's by length alone it's about $106 (16/3*20) I'll be damned if I'm converting meters to feet in my head.

8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.

What's a bank discount, how does it work? Again 10% for what period?

9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?

And the rods are how long?

10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

Done the first one, is there a formal format for the latter two?

**smiling Assassin**

I like how Bushels of Wheat were supposedly standardised, and that was common knowledge.

They are, though, aren't they?

sA

**MagickalMemories**

You should look this up on snopes.
You'll find your perfect reasoning there.

Eric

**Ahtman**

Cheese Elemental wrote:
SilverMK2 wrote:I didn't even know America had history. 300 years is pretty much current events to us Brits

Bah, try living in a nation that's only 108 years old. I feel so insignificant.

You should feel young and vibrant! Youthful energy in abundance is yours! You are hitting the pre-adolescent stage of development. You will have questions, of which we are working on a brochure at this time to be able to help answer them.

**avantgarde**

Stand back gentlemen.

GRAMMAR (TIME, ONE HOUR)
I'm an engineer we communicate primarily through grunts and capital letters. Pass

ARITHMETIC (TIME,1 HOUR 15 MINUTES:
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
The integral of f'(x) is equal to f(x). *Shrug

2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft.. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
The wagon has a volume of 60 cubed ft. A bushel is approximately 35 liters (yes I actually knew that). Now to convert liters to cubed feet... feth you customary system.

3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
This question is unsolvable without additional information, namely the density of the wheat, seeing how lbs are a unit of weight and bushels are a unit of volume.

4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
The school requires $454 to run for 7 months. 454/35,000 is about 0.013. A levy of 1.3%

5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
2000 lbs in a ton. So 6,720 lbs of coal is 3.36 tons which costs $20.16

6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
I doubt it's compound because solving e^(262*.07) is insanely time consuming by hand. Additional information required.

7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?
The hell is a metre? Do you mean meter? In America we speak English.

8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
What?

9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
I guess distance means perimeter? Which makes the farm 160*160 rods or 25600 rods sq. Damn.

10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt
feth you.

**George Spiggott**

Everyone knew the answer to the 'fundamental rules of arithmetic' question, they just didn't understand the question.

Arithmetic is the branch of mathematics that deals with real numbers.

Addition: Combining numbers to obtain an equivalent quantity.

Subtraction: Deducting one number from another.

Division: Dividing one number by another.

Multiplication: Adding an integer a specified number of times.

**Shamfrit**

Orthography is an outdated term for Linguistics I believe, I could answer this test NOW, but given I'm 22 that's not too clever.

**Nurglitch**

I would have thought that the fundamental rules of arithmetic were the Peano Axioms...

**Lordhat**

5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas

Formed back in -72 but was really the result of two bands teaming up, Kansas and White Clover. This first line-up was Steve Walsh, Richard Williams, Robby Steinhardt, Phil Ehart, Dave Hope (bass) and Kerry Livgren (guitar). Kerry and Steve both played keyboards. Kansas signed a record deal with Don Kirscher in -74 after inviting him too their gig at a local bar, and letting in people for free and giving away beer to anyone. The queue was blocks long.......

Created some kind of mega hit with the title "Song For America", and toured endlessly through The States. Kansas was from the beginning just an ordinary rock band, but was quickly compared to other progressive bands in the 70's like Genesis, Yes and King Crimson. With their unique sound and style combining rock music with complex rhytms, but mainly the violin, Kansas is loved all over the world.

In -76 Leftoverture was release with the mighty hit song "Carry On Wayward Son", and with the follow up Point Of Know Return they brought another, "Dust in The Wind".

During the recordings of Vinyl Confessions, Steve Walsh left the band to form Streets, and new singer was the 20-year old John Elefante. According to Kerry the lyrics now got a true meaning as John was a christian, and those kind of topics had increased a lot, since both Kerry and Dave Hope had become christians themselves. Robby left the band after Vinyl Confessions (reason unknown). After the release of Drastic Measures, Kerry too left with Dave to form AD and the band split.

In -86 parts of the band reformed but this time with Billy Greer (bass, ex-Streets) and Steve Morse (guitar). After the release of In The Spirit of Things the band temporarly split to reform later on with the line-up of today. With one exception though, having Robby away and instead there was David Ragsdale on the violin. Just in ahead of the recordings of Always Never The Same, he came back though. The song writing of today is mainly done by Steve Walsh, and the band is really happy with what they're doing.........

**dogma**

avantgarde wrote:
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
Inventor of the Telegraph, Cotten gin, ???, telephone, Inventor of the Lincoln Towncar, founding father of Pennsylvania, one of many commanding British general during Revolution.

I think Fulton was the steamboat (at least a successful steamboat), and the submarine.

**Relapse**

I have about 60 letters my great uncles wrote during the Civil war, and their use of English shows a really high degree of skill.
The guys came from the back woods of Maine so it says a lot for their education.

**Nurglitch**

It's less about their education than the pride and care that they took in writing well, I think.

**Wrexasaur**

Sorry Nurglitch... it speaks more about our lack therein...

**Relapse**

MagickalMemories wrote:You should look this up on snopes.
You'll find your perfect reasoning there.

Eric

I've found Snopes to be wrong on some things.

**dogma**

Wrexasaur wrote:Sorry Nurglitch... it speaks more about our lack therein...

This.

**Wrexasaur**

Could this be an argument that good students and good teachers are what is needed to make a good class?

I would argue that the teacher inevitably has a larger responsibility to the class than any individual student does, but it does make me wonder how in the heck teachers managed to get the proper materials; this may be an argument that can only support the limited amount of education available way back when of course.

I feel it is a bit silly to talk about a students responsibility to a teacher in an age where most teachers have have the clue that some students do over current affairs. Appropriate materials, and some of the common place teaching formats are obviously holding back classic education, which, oddly enough can be easily attained with little more than a tutor and access to the internet. If anything I would say that the lack of appropriate education is a sign not of students failing, but the system itself failing to provided necessary means for an average student to attain their goals.

The hill is high and I have to climb it, but most of these teachers want nothing more than for me to go climb another, less personally appropriate mountain... rather a cliff-face for some; and I fail to see how the common person would even care about such lofty and rather egocentric "fact" ridden goals.

There is absolutely nothing wrong about not knowing how everything works, because when you do, it takes no more than a banana peel to bring you deck of cards smashing down into the abyss of uncertainty.

This is the 8th grade, and I see nothing wrong with any person knowing the basics of all of these subjects BTW.

**Nurglitch**

Wrexasaur wrote:Sorry Nurglitch... it speaks more about our lack therein...

Nope. You have better access and opportunity to improve your writing. You could write better if you tried. The fact is that they just cared more.

**Wrexasaur**

You must be talking about a historically based difference then, and if so, I would argue that you are still misplaced in your comparison.

The fact that I, you, or your next door neighbor, can put some sort of personally contrived (as you put it) effort forth in a lengthy letter addressing stressful situations, while providing a very coherent and educated take on the situation... makes no difference to the comparison.

I could have improved my writing back then as well, but the fact that I would have had to put (statistically) more effort forth means absolutely diddly squat when we look at the LACK of education now. Now... not in the past century... now.

The fact is that they just cared more.

Because they chose too... which leaves them with absolutely nothing besides their ass... and a few well placed farts.

More... MORE!!! MOAR!!!

Dammit... I didn't ask for more people... this sucks so much. The competition now is profuse beyond that which I can even imagine, but I still maintain a relatively realistic perspective on "material success". One good idea... that is all I really need, besides which I need experience that would have been EXTREMELY misplaced in the centuries before my birth.

I have buttons now that can make me more than a mere man, and if you think I joke, you need a serious check back into the internet reality clinic.

Having access to the buttons we all have now, a person from times since past would very well be proven mentally incompetent. In another century, the inability to run a home computer could be grounds for medication on it's own, and this is totally separate from political hoo-haa. As long as you compare a antiquated theory of purpose to the intent of success, you need to back it up with application of said theory.

**Nurglitch**

How on Earth do you lack education? Are you not connected to the Internet? Do you lack libraries where you live?

Certainly people in the past often had more motivation to care about their writing; if paper is expensive and literacy is rare, then people who can say something to care to get it right the first time.

As for a "personally contrived effort" (where did I put it like that?), well yeah, that's what effort is. The fact is that you either decide to value your own education and take responsibility for it, or you don't.

I get the sense that trying isn't cool for people like you, but the fact is that if try you can either win or lose, and if you don't try, then you don't get to win.

You might even appreciate the irony of whinging about the state of education when the only person responsible for your education is you.

**Wrexasaur**

DO realize that more college students does not provide a lick of relevance to the current educational "availabilities". Internet... mouse... hmmm... no read....

Certainly people in the past often had more motivation to care about their writing; if paper is expensive and literacy is rare, then people who can say something to care to get it right the first time.

Can I get the math behind this please? There is certainly serious statistics proving my point about this century, and the success in education so far.

My point being that I can teach with chalk on a rock, or charcoal on a piece of wood.

...then you don't get to win.

Define win in this context please.

You might even appreciate the irony of whinging about the state of education when the only person responsible for your education is you.

You could appreciate the fact that you are whinging about me whinging about facts...

I AM IRON... WITH A Y, I KICK AND WREX!!!