In 1912, eighth graders on farms and in factories worked on the family tractor or steam power plant if there was one on that farm or industry, and knew how to identify, use, and even the equipment they worked with. They generally could spell a lot better than todays abbreviaters, and took penmanship classes when attending school, so they wrote and could read cursive writing.
Additionally, the kids of 1912 were far more knowledgeable on how the nation was established, how the political separation of powers worked, how elections worked, and the fundamental difference in right and wrong. That doesn't degrade todays kids, it merely exposes the poor education we the people are providing for our posterity.
And on the off chance that you missed the message, that ignorance in our children is by the design of very bad people who have designed society to be so dumb. M. Scott Peck wrote a book about that form of evil: People Of The Lie. You might enjoy the read.
You are absolutely correct. Kids today know how to use high tech gadgets that someone else produced, but few understand the internals. In short, they are users, plain and simple. They are also not critical thinkers for the most part.
On the other hand, let’s not pretend that there was a surplus of geniuses in 1912 either.