Are you smarter than an eigth grader?

[Beekeeper]

I received a book about the town my Dad grew up in.
All my life I remember him telling us kids he only had an 8th grade education.
Well in the book was a copy of what the kids in Kansas had to know to get an 8th grade diploma.
Take the test and see how you score!
Remember this was almost 90 years ago!!

[geargnasher]

Freakin' WOW. I doubt my dad could make an A on that, and he has an MA in English and MS in Art.

Gear

[wgr]

looking at that im dumb as a rock

[cbrick]

That is dating back to when the purpose, intent and determination of schools was to educate. Very unlike today where the only intent is to indoctrinate young minds to the joy of socialism and evils of freedom. Very few people today are aware of what is happening to our young people.

Rick

[DLCTEX]

I always thought my grandfather was really smart to only have a 7th grade education. Now I know why.

[dragonrider]

Taking that test I would be considered a low grade moron. :-)

[375RUGER]

My Grandpa, born in '21, only went to school for about 4 years, 8th grade was the last year. After that he was plowing behind a mule trying to make a living on a cotton farm. I always thought he was smart. Most would never know he only had 4 years of schooling.

[casterofboolits]

My grandmother in Kentucky gave me her 8th grade history book and it was four inches thick with small print. I spent oner summer reading that book. No TV and the radio was battery powered and only turned on for specific shows. Perhaps an hour per evening.

Light was coal oil lamps back in the hollers!

[x101airborne]

yeah, that test was apparently from when Common Sense was pretty Common and parents spent time teaching their kids to live, eat, and survive. And the kids worked with the parents on things that sustained life, problem solving, etc. Now it is all video games and such. On that test, I dont even rate as a low grade moron. Ever asked one of the new high school students how to balance a checkbook?

[stubshaft]

What is intersting to me is that there was such an emphasis on practical knowledge. I scored in the high moron/low stoopid category.

[Beekeeper]

Don't feel too bad my brothers and I took the test and each spent a week doing it and all 3 of us failed.
Just goes to show what an 8th grader knew in them old days.


beekeeper

[shooter93]

During the Great Depression if you graduated the 8th grade you were fully qualified to teach High School. I've seen older people who most people would consider "uneducated" sail through the New York Times crossword puzzle like it was nothing. When I was in Zimbabwe, one of the poorest countries on the planet, volunteers taught the kids. Every morning a troop of kids of all ages came walking down the road, singing, on their way to a make shift school several miles away. Zimbabwe has a 90% literacy rate. Simple truth is....we don't educate kids in the country anymore....we only "teach" them a lot of useless information.

[btroj]

So?
Could the person who could pass that test pass a current math or science exam for an 8th grader? Heck no, my kid learned things in 8th grade that were not even known in 1895.
Times are different. So what. Other than for nostalgia this means nothing.

Not all schools or all teachers are a problem. My child, who is a high school senior now, got an excellent public school education, Bellevue, NE. She is going to college in the fall and I have no doubts she will do fine.

Rant off