Eighth Grade Exam

[ballparent]

With all the hype associated with standarized testing by both teachers and students who complain how tough the tests are I thought I might share this e-mail.

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, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam:
Salina, KS, 1895

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, 65 minutes)

1. Name and define the Fundamenta l 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 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 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 6720 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 meter?
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, and 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour) (Do we even know what this is???)

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, and syllabication.
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, sub vocal, diphthong, cognate letters, and lingual.
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-, and 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, fain, 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.
7. Name all the republics of: Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why i s 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? This also shows you how poor our education system has become... and,

























NO!

I don't have the answers.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

"Second, the document describes itself as being administered orally and for "applicants." Unless eight graders were described as "applicants," it makes one wonder if the exam was actually for newly graduated teachers: "

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Even if this is true, find me a teacher in southeast Ohio that could pass this test!!

[TheMalteseFalcon]

"And they have on file “RULES FOR TEACHERS” from 1872 that include: Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty."

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Just this section alone would eliminate TheEducator and TheInstructor from drawing those enormous salaries they get...

[TheMalteseFalcon]

These are lower level memorization questions.

The answers are obtained through rote memorization without any pertinence to describing their significance. I obtained the following information from a 10 minute search on the internet...

For example, the following question is easy to talk about:

Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?

Morse - Samuel Morse received a patent for the telegraph in 1847.

Whitney - Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin on March 14, 1794; however, it was not validated until 1807.

Fulton - In 1807, Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston built the first commercial steamboat, the North River Steamboat (later known as the Clermont), which carried passengers between New York City and Albany, New York.

Bell - Alexander Graham Bell's research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices that eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876.

Lincoln - On May 22, 1849, Abraham Lincoln received Patent No. 6469 for a device to lift boats over shoals, an invention which was never manufactured. However, it did make him the only U.S. president to hold a patent. Shown here is his scale model at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.



Penn - (In my opinion, this should be Pennington because it fits into the era of 1800's for inventors.) Edward Joel Pennington (1858 in Moores Hill, Indiana – 1911 in Springfield Massachusetts) was an inventor and promoter of many mechanical devices, including airships, motorcycles, and automobiles. In addition to motor vehicles, he applied for and received patents for stirling engines, ignition systems, planing machines, and pulleys. E.J. Pennington is probably best known today for his pioneering motorcycles. He is sometimes credited with having invented the word "motorcycle" (he used the term as early as 1893) Pennington built and demonstrated his original motorcycle design in Milwaukee in 1895.

Howe - Elias Howe (July 9, 1819 – October 3, 1867) was an American inventor and sewing machine pioneer. He was born in Spencer, Massachusetts. Contrary to popular belief, he did not invent the sewing machine. Many other people, including Walter Hunt, had worked on the idea of such a machine before him. However, Howe refined these ideas into a functional machine and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States patent (#4750) for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design.

Today's question would read as follows:

Discuss the economic contributions of the following individuals as they relate to this famous quote:

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

Samuel Morse, Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton, Alexander Graham Bell, Abraham Lincoln, E.J. Pennington, and Elias Howe.

After studying the above passages, an individual, whether student or teacher would be able to discuss late 19th century economics based upon the contributions of the following items...

telegraph
cotton gin
steamboat
telephone
Lincoln's "boat lifter"
motorcycle
sewing machine

Heck, I knew all of those without going to the internet.... with the exception of Penn. I figured they were talking about William Penn. (not thinking).

[TheMalteseFalcon]

[quote="Tobias"]These are lower level memorization questions.

The answers are obtained through rote memorization without any pertinence to describing their significance. I obtained the following information from a 10 minute search on the internet...[quote]

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I wonder why those eighth graders didn't just spend 10 minutes on the internet? Guess they were dummies.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

Since we are discussing 19th century history...

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Hmmmmm I wondered why you chimed in on this thread.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

Toby's should read... "I'm Brainy". LOL



.

[ballparent]

Both of you guys are putting in a lot more thought than when I copied and pasted the post.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

Both of you guys are putting in a lot more thought than when I copied and pasted the post.

Ah ha.... YOU'RE the trouble maker.

[ballparent]

Both of you guys are putting in a lot more thought than when I copied and pasted the post.

Ah ha.... YOU'RE the trouble maker.

I guess so I'll try to find more copy and paste posts to give you guys something to discuss.

[ballparent]

Oh, we get quite a few of those here too. Just short blips from those that don't go play in the politics forum with the big boys.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

I finally figured out why Toby can't get below 298 lbs. Two hundred of that is his brain.

[Boonedawg]

8. Why i s the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?


I would beg to differ on this one. maybe in the winter but not in the summer.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

I finally figured out why Toby can't get below 298 lbs. Two hundred of that is his brain.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

This is the reason why 21st Century Education is based on the imagination and conceptual development of a child instead of rote memorization...

The concept and application of the machine you are now working on was developed by some of those dummies educated BEFORE the 21st century.

[BigOrangeOne]

...it is unfortunate that many of the questions on the test are not upper level...

Extremely unfortunate. I guess that is why my grandpa and everybody else in his generation was so dumb.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

I dunno, but I am sure glad you teach over there in that "progressive" state.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

I had a class in English Literature where we "delved" into PARADISE LOST for nearly an entire semester.... Biggest bunch of balogna I've ever heard. Lordie, what an imagination some people have. But I guess it makes you (a person) feel smarter to be able to spout all that nonsense.