Posted on 11/22/2009 7:19:43 AM PST by rellimpank
I posted on Nov. 11 at www.lvrj.com/blogs/vin/ a response to a letter-writing government schoolmarm who contends she should not be held responsible for the failure of her young charges to learn anything, since it's all their parents' fault.
I answered, in part:
"Teachers from 1620 through 1950 didn't go home with their kids to tuck them in, either. Yet Americans with eighth grade educations through all those centuries could read, write, spell and do basic arithmetic well enough to run circles around your pathetic charges ... even if today's pathetic inmates sit through a full 12 years of your progressively more worthless tutelage."
In response, a character identifying himself only as "Patrick" posted a Web comment:
"I'll match the worst F student today with any of the uneducated, white, illiterate bare footed, freedom loving, gun toting, hay seed Vin would chose to match wits, if only that were possible."
Another respondent, billing himself as "Spike," added: "The fact is that the MOST ignorant senior in any 'socialist' high school today knows more than ANY college graduate from the 1800s, just as the most impoverished person today, 'lives' better than 99 percent of the citizens of this country lived during those years. ..."
One "Ben Deho" added (punctuation corrected here): "Another example of a blowhard saying whatever pops into his head and having people believe it as absolute fact. The majority of Americans couldn't even read until around the '20s and '30s. Before that, education was primarily for the upper class folk. This is basic stuff that can be found with even a little research ..."
(Excerpt) Read more at lvrj.com ...
I have a fasination for old books. I’ve seen many turn of the century math books for then junior high level students that would blow you away. This is college level stuff.
I doubt you could find High School Seniors that could answer more than a few in the time alloted...
There are obviously some factors that are not prevalent in todays cirriculum, but still, this would be an interesting study to see how 8th graders, much less those in the 12th grade could perform with these expectations...
Speaking of one in particular, U.S. Grant, I believe he might have graduated near the bottom of his class at West Point. But he wrote what is considered by many to the best account of war, his memoirs of the Civil War, ever written by a major participant.
No need to brainwash these dolts.
There always has been and there is now a significant percentage of our population that are truly sheeple. It did not just happen, although it is being maxed by the dem/libs since FDR.
But! But! Kids today know how to put a condom on a banana! Kids in 1895 didn’t know how to do that!
Venture into a classroom now days and you’ll understand why Johnny can’t read. It’s because Johnny doesn’t respect his teacher, his classmates, or himself enough to sit down and not cause total chaos. No one can learn in today’s classrooms. In the far distant past, it wouldn’t have crossed Johnny’s mind to act out because learning was a privilege. In the not so distant past, Johnny’s acting out would have resulted in the principal introducing him to the board of education and that evening daddy would be removing his belt for reinforcement on the behavioral lesson. Today, Johnny knows he can get by with anything he wants. Let a teacher raise an eyebrow at Johnny and his parents will be all over the school. Parents don’t value education nor do they teach their children to behave. So, yes, it is the parents’ fault.
Whine, hold your breath, stomp your feet and write scathing replies but it all starts in the home. Come on, admit when you last observed a classroom. For that matter, just look around the grocery store and tell me kids are little angels. A generation back wouldn’t have kids running screaming up and down the aisles calling customers four letter words for getting in their way or in the basket intentionally kicking their parents or hollering “I want, I want, I want” at every cereal box on the shelves. Now, remove the parent (who might have enough power to remove their phones for an hour) from the scene and its all out pandemonium.
This so-called debunker never did actually debunk whether it was a real test. He or she simply stated that it was meaningless because no one could pass it years after and furthermore the test was lacking compared to modern tests. The huge mistake this “debunker” makes is assuming today’s students could pass either the old test or a modern test. I doubt they could pass either. The writer assumes modern students are wonderfully proficient in all areas of study and knowledge. I sincerely doubt that.
I only have one hour, so I’ll take geography:
Geography (Time, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
Climate is globull warming, caused by man emmissions and cow burps.
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
Kansas climate is extreme because of globull warming.
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
Rivers are used to protect snail darters. Oceans are used to protect wales and polar bears.
4. Describe the mountains of N.A.
They should all be National Parks protected from snowmobiles.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
Vacation destinations.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld brought down the trade centers.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
European Union capital is Brussels.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
The Golf Stream and globull warming.
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
Water is being held in occupied territories behind dams and has the right of return.
10.Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.
Gaia sometimes quakes to shake off the human infection. She is inclined to running a fever because of globull warming.
The anecdotal evidence of educational malpractice abounds, whether it gets a NewsWEAK cover or not.
I hope the educational bubble is the next to pop. Would love to see all those Marxist Professors on the side of the road with signs, "Will finally work for food."
A GREAT read is John Taylor Gatto's "Weapons on Mass Instruction." His take: the Skewl System is working perfectly -- snuffing out leadership and entreprenuership and popping our sheeple consumers/followers.
LOL
LOL
I know of a similar circumstance,...wherein when one could advance to the next grade/school when completeing "The Books".....A gal I know attended a one room schoolhouse in Missouri, accomplished the "books", her parents moved 'into town' so she could attend High School. She graduated 'only' second in her class....but went to college at age 15 back then, out of college at 19 and married at 20,my wife of almost fifty years now.
Precisely. The school I attended had three teachers for eight grades but the phonetics was the method by which reading was taught. So by the fourth grade I was reading the school’s one set of ancient encyclopedias and Milton’s Paradise Lost for enjoyment.
I was not the exceptional student, rather average in fact, though I should like to think otherwise.
“The Golf Stream and globull warming.”
I always wondered why Yankees pay so much to play golf on Hilton Head.
Actually, at the risk of being a bit harsh to a fellow Freeper, could it be the person who posts the Snopes link without even reading the Snopes write up?
Snopes doesn't claim that the test in question is phony, and even publishes another test of the same period with similar questions. What they do contend is that just because the tests appear harder doesn't mean that the students were better educated, a rather weak argument if you ask me.
did you actually read the snopes posting? it does not say the test is not real, it just tries to push the thinking that any test would look difficult if you hadn’t crammed for it. (i’d say bullsh*t to that... if i couldn’t pass an 8th grade math test, i should lose my job)
in the end, the test is valid and stands in stark contrast to those given today. hell, today’s college grads wouldn’t stack up to my standards just 20 years ago(@20 i was demoing systems i created to generals @ the pentagon). these days, subway managers have a tough time finding candidates that can place ingredients on bread in the specified order (i kid you not)
The high school graduates I've come in contact with over the years have about the level of education I had before I entered the sixth grade.
What's phoney about it? And who is “Snopes”?
“Ummmm, someone who posts a phoney 1895 grade 8 test and passes it off as fact?? ;) “
I had a student, a graduate student mind you, of reasonable apparent intelligence who had no idea there was no air in outer space.
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