I taped probably 50 or more episodes of “What’s My Line,” back when the Game Show Channel was airing the reruns of the old kinescopes.
The network also ran a number of other early-1950s quiz shows (legitimate ones, not the rigged, scandal-ridden ones from later in the decade). What was fascinating was watching the contestents pulled from the audience and given a broad range of questions. Simple plumbers, carpenters, and housewives... all usually from somewhere out in mid-america, but visiting NY on a business trip or vacation. Yet their knowledge of things ranging from history to geography to current affairs was hugely impressive. Such a jaw-dropping comparison to the sheer idiocy you find in the average man-on-the-street nowadays.
What a window on America’s cultural degeneration.
And I'll bet each one of them knew that the earth revolved around the sun once each year ; - )
Those individuals were educated by non-unionized teachers who approached their profession as a vocation. I attended catholic schools in densely populated areas. We were crammed 55 to a classroom with one nun. Our education was focused on the basics with limited extra curricula sports programs. Without electronic tools, we had to be self-reliant, memorizing multiplication tables, algebraic formulas, spelling, punctuation, historical & scientific facts, etc. Our brains were our spell checkers. We were challenged to be self-disciplined and strive for excellence.
Today, despite massive funding from taxes and other resources, the american education system cannot compete with the past. The quality has indeed degenerated.