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
As a side note, my father and a lot of my cousins were graduates of Detroit high schools. While they undoubtedly received a better fundamental education than today’s Detroit school kids, less than half graduated from high school. My father graduated from a Detroit high school, but going to college was unthought of by most people in his economic class.