[driftless2]

I'm not assuming schools were of the same quality. But I'm also not assuming schools were great 100 years ago. Black students might very well be more poorly educated than they were fifty years ago. But the overall educational output of non-minority students after WWII is undoubtedly higher than it was one hundred years ago. Even many southern white children until about fifty years ago were poorly educated compared to today. Until reconstruction few non-rich southerners, white or black, went to schools. Children were needed to work the farm.

It wasn't much better up north outside the cities. Even in the cities it wasn't until after WWII that the high school graduation rate rose above 50%. If you're trying to tell me people with eighth grade educations or less are more knowledgeable than kids who graduated from high school or college, I think you're sadly mistaken.

My elderly relatives didn't spend their spare time reading Shakespeare or going to the history lecture. They were busy working many hours a day in their early teens. None of my grandparents or great grandparents attended school beyond high school. Neither of my grandparents graduated from high school. I have no elderly cousins on either side of my family who went beyond high school.

When as a child I visited my elderly relative's homes, I saw no reading material other than newspapers and magazines, and rarely even those. No books. I was the weirdo in my family because I used to read the encyclopedia. My father never picked up a volume except to read the volume that had information of golf. It sounds like you're of the opinion that everybody 100 years ago received a great education, and all children who went to public schools after WWII all had lousy educations. I sincerely doubt that.

[slowhandluke]

The subject I addressed was literacy, and only literacy. Whether or not folks chose to read after they left school is another question altogether. Too bad about your family, I hope you can rise above your genetics.

If you're trying to tell me people with eighth grade educations or less are more knowledgeable than kids who graduated from high school or college, I think you're sadly mistaken.

It depends on which high school. If you take Detroit, then I'm not mistaken at all, since those kids seem to learn precious little these days. If you are talking about Exeter Academy, then you are probably right.

There is still evidence around of what was expected of an 8th grade education in the 19th century - from the Kansas State Library web site: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/saline/society/exam.html