Posted by
perseveringjayhawker on Thursday, December 07, 2006 2:03:41 PM
“As for money, the relationship between it and effective schools has been studied to death. The unanimous conclusion is that there is no connection between school funding and school performance."
Brookings Institution scholars John Chubb and Terry Moe, 1990
Below, are parts of an original 1895 eighth-grade final exam from Salina, Kansas. How many of these questions could you answer, let alone your eighth grader?
GRAMMAR
1. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
2. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
3. What are the Principle Parts of a verb? Give the Principle Parts of do, lie, lay and run.
4. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
ARITHMETIC
1. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
2. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cents per bu., deducting 1050 lbs. For tare?
3. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
4. Write a Bank Check, A Promissory Note, and a Receipt.
U.S. HISTORY
1. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
2. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
3. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
4. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865
ORTHOGRAPHY
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
3. Use the following correctly in sentences:
Cite, site, sight
Fane, fain, feign
Vane, vain, vein
Raze, raise, rays
4. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
GEOGRAPHY
1.Name all of the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
2.Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
3.Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of the rivers.
4.Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.
Why are we so much less educated than our ancestors? We spend hundreds, in some cases thousands, of dollars per pupil in today’s schools and yet……what is ORTHOGRAPHY?
One of the best ways we have of gauging how our school children are doing (supposedly) is “The Report Card to the Nation and States”, administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAEP tests students in reading, math, science, history, and geography. In 1990 the results for this test showed that not even today’s high school graduates could have passed the eighth grade 111 years ago, let alone our eighth graders. The NAEP showed that 2 out of 3 seventeen year olds did not know the reason for Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Less than half of high school seniors recognized the famous “Give me liberty or give me death” quote as having come from Patrick Henry. Even fewer knew of the existence of the War of 1812, the Marshal Plan, or Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. On a world map most could not even locate Southeast Asia.
This apparent lack of a well rounded and effective education is not due to a lack of time spent in school nor of money spent on schools. As a society we should all be concerned with what our children are being taught, or perhaps not being taught. Educated people are not as easy to manipulate and are therefore essential in maintaining a free society. Let us not assume too much in regards to what kind of education the children of this country are receiving. We must but be vigilant, demanding our children are being, at least, as well educated as our ancestors were.
Maybe if the government schools spent even half the time on true acedemics (using true facts, not made up ones that better fit their worldview) that they do on social engineering, we would not have to be confronted with the task of having to help the young clerk count back our change when their computer fails them. Or more importantly, if citizens of this country were being truly educated instead of truly indoctrinated, the worry that a member of the Socialist Party (often times known as Democrats) being elected could be eliminated.