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"Take out a No. 2 Pencil & 2 Pieces of Paper for Problems"
January 14, 2009
There is a show on television called "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader." This is obviously a show intended for adults where the object is to answer questions from Grades One through Five and hopefully win the final One Million Dollar Cash Prize. I watch it like I do Jeopardy because I enjoy the popular and the obscure of culture, history etcetera.
I have questions about our educational system and will not venture into the land of blame and shame. "It's the teachers, it's the students, it's the board of education, it's the local government, it's the state government and of course it's the feds. I will admit to one thing, it most certainly is something and probably more than one something.
I have questions about even the basic literacy rate of our countries youth. I have questions as to why in the state where I reside, a place where on any given day millions upon millions of people purchase a myriad of the various lottery offerings; where each night we have televised mini-shows of ping-pong balls with numbers showing live who of us sitting our asses in a lazy boy will be able to upgrade to a BARCO-lounger on the morrow? The newspapers giving column space, valuable real estate in order to display the same numbers you may have missed in their live telecast. We have commercials that have made actors and recognized people out of plain ordinary spokespersons. In some states their television celebrity equals and surpasses some of the small screen actors that live in the city. We have toll free numbers and we can ask for the winning numbers at pretty much any store that sells lottery tickets and since pretty much every store does the option for information about the lottery, including its online website remain an amazing display of information. I have questions as to why such a lucrative part of our states funding (it must be lucrative to spend so much money supporting its various media advertising campaigns) which given I was under the impression that a large amount was earmarked to develop and enhance our educational system seem not to be leaving the same mark on the general public. After all I do not see tons of people rushing to the school board meeting to propose higher school taxes, not that they do not want their children to suffer educationally but more that they still wait as all the schools do to hit the lottery.
I think that each day the State of New York should buy one ticket for each one of its schools to the million dollar lotteries that hit here I believe three times a week. Who knows right? A school or schools may over time hit the numbers and have an immediate supply of excess funds to right some wrongs. It seems certain that the schools have a better chance of hitting the numbers than getting the cash out of a strapped state budget. I question why in all this time I've never seen printed the revenues of all this lottery income and how much of that money eventually finds its way to the State Board of Education to redistribute equitably. I have many such questions about the workings of our educational system nationwide but can save more for another focus, another opinion.
These are a couple of examples of our educational shortfalls (and these are not from 1895)
" . . . And just one in 10 were able to say, when given the choice among Japan, Great Britain, Canada, and Germany, that Canada was the country that had the largest volume and value of trade with the United States.
" . . . School officials said today that 47 percent of elementary and middle school students failed to pass both their reading and math exams; the failure rate was under 40 percent in the prior year.
We make fun of our history when it comes to education. It comes from a sense that we've enhanced so many aspects of our civilization that we ARE smarter than our Great-Grandparents were. Now the people who apply to these "educational" shows like "Millionaire, 5th Grader, and Jeopardy" and others like it do not apply because they believe they don't have a chance. Most I am sure feel that they are fairly intelligent and have a broad range on topical knowledge as I do. So I ask you to look at and if you desire take this test. You get five hours to complete it.
This test administered to Eighth graders in Kansas in 1895 gives new meaning to the term, "Eighth Grade Education." I know of many college graduates, myself included that if given the five hours to complete the exam would be hard pressed to get a passing grade. Perhaps like everything else that has made our lives easier the practical application of learning has been lost somehow to the rhythms of society. One can hope this is not the case. This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas. 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. I received it in an email and checked the source and found it accurate.
8th GRADE FINAL EXAM
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, lay and run
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
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 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. 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 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 around 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)
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 vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, and linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
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, 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, Aspin wall & 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 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.
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For too long I've messed with the wiring in my head. Now it shorts out more oft than not. But at my age I just sit and enjoy the sparks. RJM '07
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