Thread: 8th grade test

"gregair13" wrote:

These are all pretty basic questions.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

"gregair13" wrote:

Kids have to way to easy now a days. These are all pretty basic questions.
Should we together try to answer them all?

Bull, those are all vague questions.
Not to mention the kids back then probably only learned the answers to those and had no other subjects.

Where's the second language, biology, chemistry, physics, computer sciences, etc?

Kids these days have to learn waaayyy more material than kids back then.
Much more varied subject matter as well.

Trust me, being a kid these days isn't easy and you can not say they aren't learning as much. They are learning A LOT more and are under more pressure to perform. Coming from a teacher, this is near and dear to my heart. The students in my elementary school are learning things that I didn't get to until middle school in my days of growing up.

Yea, that test is only hard because of the completely different curriculum which looked like it was more about describing the rules of things than acting them out in a problem, like defining the law of sines instead of doing a problem that would require knowledge of the law of sines. Plus, that arithmetic looks incredibly basic for 8th grade, and theres no algebra, science, or strippers.

JUGGALO LOVE BABY

"BadlandsViking" wrote:

Kids in 1895 didn't have anything else to do but study.

You kidding? Most kids in 1895 did craploads of free child labor for their parents, either on farms or around their house, and a very good number of them worked in factories and mills.

Kids nowdays don't have anything else to do but text message and play console games.

"Odin" wrote:

"BadlandsViking" wrote:

Kids in 1895 didn't have anything else to do but study.

You kidding? Most kids in 1895 did craploads of free child labor for their parents, either on farms or around their house, and a very good number of them worked in factories and mills.

Kids nowdays don't have anything else to do but text message and play console games.

They had no tv no radio most had to walk a mile or two to school after doing chores go walk back home do chores study and go to be when it got dark

"enlvikeman" wrote:

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, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.
8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895

Snopes.com calls bullshit:

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

(They're not questioning the veracity of the test, merely the conclusion that the test represents a decline in educational standards over the last 100+ years.)

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp wrote:

Consider: To pass this test, no knowledge of the arts is necessary (not even a nodding familiarity with a few of the greatest works of English literature), no demonstration of mathematical learning other than plain arithmetic is required (forget algebra, geometry, or trigonometry), nothing beyond a familiarity with the highlights of American history is needed (never mind the fundamentals of world history, as this exam scarcely acknowledges that any country other than the USA even exists), no questions about the history, structure, or function of the United States government are asked (not even the standard "Name the three branches of our federal government"), science is given a pass except for a few questions about geography and the rudiments of human anatomy, and no competence in any foreign language (living or dead) is necessary.
An exam for today's high school graduates that omitted even one of these subjects would be loudly condemned by parents and educators alike, subjects about which the Salina, Kansas, students of 1895 needed know nothing at all.