Studious group of 19th Century Eight Graders

By Henry B. Rosenbush

Average Child 1953-58
Average student 1958-72
Average college student 1972-77
Average human being, 1977-present

Last Friday, I was in a cynical mode when I wrote about the nature of the human race and especially displayed my disdain to the generations of people who make snide remarks about “primitive cultures.” After man finishes destroying animals, the environment and one another any future life forms would not be unkind to call the 19th and 20th Century humanoids primitives.

Well, I am slightly less cynical today but certainly game to reiterate that we are not as intelligent as we think. Clever, perhaps, but from my experiences in a real estate capacity, where I deal with college students daily, I see a continuous pattern of neglect in the intellectual arena.

I’m fortunate this year to have smarter students; some who lived here last year were prime examples of students who feel entitled to everything without the slightest inkling of what the hell the world will be like when they get through ruining it. Each generation has scholarly individuals who add to its beauty, but for every lawyer, doctor, accountant or journalist who graduates in the top 5 or 10 percent we are unfortunately left with the other 90 who will be in the workforce, too.

Thanks to David Schneider for sending me an email that should be of interest to anyone who thinks “I know everything.”

When grandparents and great-grandparents claimed to have only an 8th grade education some of us instinctively knew that education was more and important and far more difficult in earlier times. Today, an eighth grader probably knows more about sports trivia, newest I-pod tunes, and surfing the web, than the questions in an eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS. This exam was taken from the original document, on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library, in Salina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

When I was an eighth grader, I wore braces on my teeth, had facial acne and was an average student. I had difficulty with fractions, was a good speller and adequate in social studies. I understood the mechanisms of grammar, syntax and punctuation until I had to stand before the class, chalk in hand, to diagram sentences on the blackboard:

“Hmm, subject, verb, predicate pronouns and modifiers. Yikes!”

I knew all the state capitals, and both the English and Hebrew alphabets, but was not particularly adept at any sports. By college, at least I was good at Spades and Hearts and we all know how important card games - sans flash - figure into the socio-economic polemics of the intellectual cognoscenti! Sorry, I could not resist being fatuous.

In college, at the University of Southern Mississippi, I learned how little I had learned in the Alabama education system. After all, in 1972 Alabama and Mississippi were the last two states in education constantly jockeying position to see who was 49th or 50th this year. The University of Alabama’s school of journalism (all small letters intentionally) was unaccredited most of my years at USM, where their School of Journalism was Top-Notch.

We do not provide answers; that’s better considering how many students cheat nowadays, or would use the Internet rather than study their textbooks; it would be fascinating to learn how much college educated people could pass this exam. When Natalie shares horror stories of teaching Spanish to college students who barely understand the English equivalent I can only imagine their first trip to Latin America when they are captured by banditos with no sense of humor.

Natalie speaks over eight languages and is a true worldwide intellectual who understands the cultures, languages, social, political and economic backgrounds of more countries than I can recount. After almost 17 years together I have learned more about the world than in 18 years of education, including refresher courses I took in the 1980s that were far from refreshing.

It took five hours to complete the 19th Century exam and even with a BS degree in Journalism and English this was difficult fun. There is truth to why BS degrees mean BS! There are specifics important to that era’s educational concerns like grammar, arithmetic, geography, orthography and U.S. History.

I recently saw college students interviewed, who had voted for Barack Obama, and whose knowledge of politics was frightening. Aside from being first-time voters who at least did it wisely, they laughed giddily when asked questions about Obama, President George W. Bush’s administration - they can be forgiven for not knowing what he did the last eight years - or basics. They did, however, look ready to go night-clubbing and shopping at Target.

So, dear friends, get out your pencils - remember this is 1895 - and test your knowledge against these children. If you want to cheat, go ahead, but remember you only hurt yourself.

For extra credit grab a handy eighth grader!

THE TEST

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 paragraph
4. 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 divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results 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, a nd Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. 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. 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.