Education Before and Now

I'll be the first second one to say it. I don't know more than an eighth grader from 1895. Yikes!!

Hi,

Frankly, it will take me a month just to look up some of the vocabulary .

Kind regards ...

Thanks for the thread. It definitely puts our grandparents in a new light.

It also sheds light on the extent of our backward slide in US education. I'd bet money that the vast majority of our current college graduates couldn't pass that test.

I accept, I am bound to fail. I am a product of nes system.

Ummm.........I would have probably flunked this

Great post DCaD - Thanks!

Very practical questions for the life ahead.......8th grade may be their last grade.

Because with progressive schools we have and how hard the children have it today

Today relevant questions probally would be.......

How many batteries does the Wii take?.....And what size?

^{ohh, they hate these trick questions}

Up to this point my first thought when Kansas was mentioned was Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

I didn't realize it was a land full of old smart people or is that old genii or old geniuses.

Let's not forget that at the end of the 19th century the US in general and the north/south border state of Kansas in particular was a racially divided society. This test may have been a Negro public high school entry exam.

This test has been floating around the internet for some time (10-15 years) and of course has been around for over 100 years. The first time I saw it, I was quite impressed.

While I am no fan of today's education system (or lack thereof), even the kids of today could pass this test, if they were actually taught the necessary information. Besides, think of all the extra time they had not having to cover WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, two Persian Gulf wars. Also, there were no distractions like extra curricular activities (football, basketball, swim teams, cheerleading, etc.), television, Wii, and video games so they would have plenty of time to study.

Indeed, the field of study was much narrower then, and these were all the subjects they had to focus on. They weren't blessed like modern youth with subjects such as 'Citizenship', 'Media Studies', 'IT', 'Design & Technology' (woodwork & metalwork to us older folk), etc.

Caution: A few of those answers are wrong.

Hmm. I didn't really look at them. I was amazed that there seems to be a cheat sheet for EVERY test! I Googled "Give nine rules for the use of capital letters answers". Not too tough. Is it really that easy for school kids today?

I glanced through the answers now, and one jumps out at me; the inclination of the earth (see the last question) is most definitely not 23.45 degrees. I suspect in the parlance of 1895, axial tilt was known as inclination. Are there some more? Maybe we should do an Easter Egg Hunt on the answer sheet!

Actually the inclination is 23.5 (sic) degrees. I suspect that the number is rounded up today because we've found that large earthquakes can and often do shift things.

CR$ Admin: Changed link for inclination to Wikipedia, which indicates that axial tilt varies with an average of 23.26 degrees -- hence the "sic." 12/28/2018

Well! I just told tcmtech in an IM that every now and again I say something dumb. I wish it were more than one hour between prophecy and realization!

Before I posted my comment, I did a refresher course at Wiki. They tell me Inclination is "..the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction." In your link to Palomar, the angle of inclination shown on their drawing is indicated by Wiki to be Axial Tilt, "...the angle between an object's rotational axis, and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane."

I find the values of these for Earth (per Wiki) to be about 23.5^o axial tilt, and inclination of about 7.2^o.

I am more inclined to believe you, redfred, and Dr.Thorngren. Can my beloved Wikipedia have it so wrong? Or (more likely) am I reading something wrong?

Well here lies another example of the great problems of communication. The term "inclination" in 1895 may have meant the tilt of the earth's axis to the orbital path but now it clearly means something else. Since the 1895 question does not state what the other plane the Earth's orbital travel should be measured to (ecliptic 0°, solar equator 7.2°, Laplace's invariable plane 1.6°, galactic plane ??, etc.) one could in theory have any answer from zero to three hundred and sixty degrees. I stumbled across Dr. Thorngren's page and cited it just to not cite Wikipedia. Since his reference coincided with the 1895 values I fell for this answer. (I also have a fondness for the old scope at Palomar.) I now believe that inclination can mean either term but the more accurate term is the one you found on Wikipedia that requires a second plane defined to measure the orbital plane against.

Nicely done, Doorman.

Tell us about this corner you visit so often.......

but has it (rote learning) served well overall?

Thanks to you, I can now gragiate to duh ninth grade .

(ifn I can writ all these ansers on my shirt sleeve ).

I don't think the level of this test is any different to what kids do today!

There's a bit of grammar, not considered as important today but still covered, a bit of simple maths useful for life on the farm, history facts by rote, orthography and geography that's irrelevant in an age of Google and newspapers.

Nothing at a level any bright year 8 kid couldn't handle today. Every age has it's own interests, pet subjects and requirements.

I know very few adults who could pass it straight out, including me.

Of course not. Because such information is not being taught or has not been used for quite some time by those adults. Just because you don't know something doesn't mean you can't learn it or even that you should learn it.

I am not able to recall what a gerund is anymore, but I do know that I used to know what it was when I was in high school. I have had no need to use that information and suspect I won't need to know what it is for a few more years (until my kids get a bit further along in school). The good thing is that the lovely Mrs. does know what it is and she even knows how to use one properly. And not just because of her excellent memory, but because the English language is a significant part of her professional life.

The young person of today has different priorities to deal with at this young age and can answer questions never thought of in 1895. like any fourth grader of today can tell 'what day Gramma gets her check', 'whats a kilo', 'when was the last time you seen your daddy', 'Give me a definition of a joint', one you smoke and the one you got out of and you could go on and on I'm sure. In 1895 the parents lived and worked together to raise 'men' and 'women' and now, we are raising children who do not need to understand 'rod', yards,' interest' and tomorrow. The 35 year old child of today never saw his daddy, can work the street till Gramma gets her check and live it up for three days and restart again the process that been going on since he should have been in the 8th. grade

Here in the UK about 95% of all 21 year olds couldn't have answerd about 30% of these questions in 24 hours, and as for the younger ones of 18 years maybe 99% of them couldn't have answered 90% of these questions in 24 hours!

Here in the UK there is much talk about the dumming down of education, and yesterday I read a report about how far this dumming down has reached, there are three disiplines that seem to be too hard for most students, mathematics, English language and the Sciences. One of the problems they have been talking about is teachers, most of our teachers are typically leftist, and they have over the years brought in leftist ideas, such as grammer is not relevant, and everything has to be so PC.

These last few years I have taken to teaching my grand children in the weekends, and this extra tuition has paid great results so far, but should it really be necessary for grand parents to right the wrongs that our grand children have been taught, or not taught as in most cases?

Xanasax