Pauls Ponderings - May 1, 2008

A constant theme being preached today by a wide variety of sources concerns the importance of education in today’s modern world. And, all the sources are entirely correct. There’s very few good jobs in the world today that don’t require quite a bit of education – a high school diploma is a definite and a college degree or even advanced college degrees preferred in many instances.
However, just completing a certain grade level, be it high school or college, doesn’t necessarily mean that an individual is educated, or has received a good education.
A lot of people of my generation or age bracket probably know a lot of people who didn’t make it through high school. A lot of our parents and grandparents were lucky to have made it through the eighth grade. But, that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t educated – in many ways they knew a lot more than many of us do today.
To emphasize this point, a friend of mine passed along the following e-mail (he got it from his daughter, who is a teacher). It is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and was reprinted by the Salina Journal.
One needs to realize that these students had no televisions, no radios, no calculators, no computers, no Google, and no programs like “No Child Left Behind.”

8TH GRADE FINAL EXAM, SALINA, KS -1895
Grammar (Time, one hour)1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie', 'play,' and 'run.' 5. Define case; illustrate each case.6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time, 1 hour 15 minutes) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft.deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. for tare? 4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per metre?8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt. U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1 Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.3. Relate the causes and result s of the Revolutionary War.4. Show the territorial growth of the United States. 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas. 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?8. Name event's connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865. 
Orthography (Time, one hour) [Do we even know what this is??] 1. What is meant by the following : alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?) 5 Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. 
Geography (Time, one hour) 1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?4. Describe the mountains of North America 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.7. Name all the republics of  Europe and give the capital of each. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took five hours to complete. And “he only had an eighth grade education” shows how weak our educational system has become.
And, NO, the answers didn’t accompany the e-mail, and I definitely don’t have them.