Very impressive, but if you think about what kids are learning today, we could stump a few 19th century Kansans.
1. When designing a financial spreadsheet, should you start with a DOS or Windows platform?
2. Two cars drive from Altoona to Biscayne, a distance of 120 miles. One travels 50 mph. The other travels 40 mph and makes but drives in reverse for ten minutes. When does the first car arrive? The second?
3. Celia downloads 14 ring tones on her cell phone. Brian downloads 40% more. Brian attempts to download ten from his landline. How many total ringtones are downloaded?
The kids in Kansas would have been unfamiliar with these things, and would have had a harder or perhaps impossible time trying to answer them. A lot of the toughness of the Kansas example is due to our unfamiliarity with the references. Most of us are not farmers any more.
Answers
1. April
2. Aquamarine; Taupe
3. Swiss Embassy
4. Netflix
There is no toughness. This is completely trivial.
At the time the constitution was ratified, here is what a high school graduate was expected to know, to be considered for college.
(1) translate an ode of Horace from Latin into English *verse* (graded for rhyme and meter as well as accuracy)
(2) translate a single book of the New Testament from Greek *into Latin*
(3) be expert in arithmetic (timed math test)
(4) have a blameless moral character (clean record and 3 letters of recommendation)
We are surrounded by idiots because we accept idiocy, no other reason...