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Could You Have Passed the 8th Grade in 1895?
http://mwhodges.home.att.net/1895-test.htm ^ | by Michael Hodges

Posted on 12/18/2008 9:30:57 AM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing

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 do, lie, lay 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, 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. per bu, 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 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 inch? 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, syllabication? 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, 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, super. 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 N.A. 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco. 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give 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 inclination of the earth.


TOPICS: Education; History; Miscellaneous; Reference
KEYWORDS: education; liberalism; teachersunions
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All I can say is GOOD GRIEF!

This just goes to show how far our education has been dumbed down.

1 posted on 12/18/2008 9:30:57 AM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

Not me, I wasn’t born until 1957.


2 posted on 12/18/2008 9:32:37 AM PST by SFR
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To: SFR

Yeah, by then the softening of the curricula was well under way.

Did you come even close? These tests from the 1800s are not easy.


3 posted on 12/18/2008 9:35:15 AM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing (There is no "rich". There is only "the hiring class".)
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing
Answer:

This test hurts my feelings.

4 posted on 12/18/2008 9:35:43 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: SFR

Bingo. Lets see someone from 1895 build a website!


5 posted on 12/18/2008 9:35:49 AM PST by Troll_House_Cookies (Ironically, Chancellor Obama's first re-education camp will be in Alaska.)
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

Sorry. This is an urban legend. Please see http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp for the background of this hoary chestnut.


6 posted on 12/18/2008 9:36:43 AM PST by redpoll
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing
Snopes 1895 exam
7 posted on 12/18/2008 9:37:20 AM PST by Drew68
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

Arithmetic’s doable, but the rest... ah... I may need time. ;)


8 posted on 12/18/2008 9:37:22 AM PST by CE2949BB (Fight.)
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To: SFR
Not me, I wasn’t born until 1957.

Mee too. I would be -69 years old.

9 posted on 12/18/2008 9:38:05 AM PST by TexGuy (If it has the slimmest of chances of being considered sarcasm ... IT IS!)
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

Since the classroom was different as the teaching of that era and I’ve never been in a classroom of that time period, the answer is no.


10 posted on 12/18/2008 9:38:08 AM PST by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing
Geography:
4. Describe the mountains of N.A.

I can answer that one. I am currently in Irvine CA for business. I reside in MA. This is my first trip to the West Coast.
The only description I can give of the mountains I've seen this week (between rain storms) is...Holy Crap!

I'll be taking lots of photos this weekend. (If I can tear myself away from The Irvine Spectrum.)

11 posted on 12/18/2008 9:38:27 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (A couple of pints and a package of crisps....ahhh. Life's good.)
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To: redpoll

GMTA


12 posted on 12/18/2008 9:39:05 AM PST by Drew68
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

“This just goes to show how far our education has been dumbed down. “

In researching the novel I recently wrote, I learned a lot about education in the 1800’s. First it was valued above anything for those who could afford it. I have volumes of documents, letters, written by Cherokee ancestors from the early 1800’s, all the way through. They had to fight hard to be educated and they were better educated than most students of today. One day perhaps, we will get back to the idea of education being valuable.


13 posted on 12/18/2008 9:39:09 AM PST by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925)
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

I am truly offended and intimidated. That article should have not been written in black. A soft, understated purple should have been used. :D


14 posted on 12/18/2008 9:39:28 AM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

The students of today know only to vilify our current President and praise the prez-elect.


15 posted on 12/18/2008 9:39:32 AM PST by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

No, I could not have passed. Maybe I could dig up a McGuffy Reader.


16 posted on 12/18/2008 9:40:49 AM PST by madison10
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To: ClearCase_guy

What few people realize here...is that when a kid finished and passed the local school board exam (at whatever age he could passed)...he actually knew something. When you measure the amount of knowledge that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Thomas Edison had at 18....its probably what you’d find in a 22-year old guy who finishes up four years of college.

At some point, up until the 1940s....high school meant something and most everyone in America got by without a degree of any sort. My grandmother had six months of teaching college in the 1910 period...and proceeded to teach kids (with no certificates).

If the public ever came to grasp the significance of school in 1895...they might ask some really stupid questions...which your local school board really doesn’t want to answer.


17 posted on 12/18/2008 9:41:33 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

i m a publik scewl teechur. I might be able to teach some of this if the NEA would let me. I would also need permission to discipline my students as they would have in 1895.


18 posted on 12/18/2008 9:41:59 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing

bfltr


19 posted on 12/18/2008 9:42:09 AM PST by mnehring
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To: Halfmanhalfamazing
Obama’s Harvard-educated pick for Sec. of Education, Duncan, couldn't begin to pass this test. He doesn't even have today's basic grammar skills as evidenced by yesterday's public appearance quote “...gave my wife and I.....” . If it wasn't important for him, why should he think it is important for the children?
20 posted on 12/18/2008 9:42:09 AM PST by Melinda
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