How smart are you?

A

A'sD

500+ Posts
Smarter than an 8th grader? From 1895?

Did we have a dept of education back then? BTW, I do know that answer
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The answer is no way I could pass that test. I will say that the mathematics is all practical. There isn't any 'higher' math on there. Now by 8th grade you are into algebra.
I have had several conversations about knowledge and the changing base of knowledge. I find that evolution very interesting.
 
That has nothing to do with how "smart" you are.
e.g., "1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided."
It's merely a regurgitation of a particular curriculum.
 
Don't matter. I can beat up any eighth grader.

In addition to the Snopes link, I wonder how many students attained eighth grade in the year of the test and how they did on the test.

I do lament that I cannot figure bushels from the cubic footage of a wagon, nor give four substitutes for caret 'u.' But is it vain to say that I don't need a weather vane to plot the course of a vein in the arm?
 
? If you have a group of kids and tell them, '"We're going to have a test on the states and capitals at the end of the semester, so that's what we're going to study," and a similar group who does not get the warning, it's very likely the first group will do much better on the test than the latter. But it has nothing to do with "smartness."

It doesn't mean the information is not good to have, but it's just a reflection of a specific curriculum.

I could probably easily devise a test modern eighth graders might do well on that ca. 1890's students couldn't.
 
Obvious proof we need vouchers, private schools and intelligent design curricula in our home schools. And a couple of bottles of New World Odor to wear when protesting the local school board meetings.
 
Just think how brilliant those 1895 tykes would have been if they had received sufficient federal and local funding! The poor fools of that era probably labored under the delusion that books, desks, and writing materials were all that was required. Thankfully we know better now.
 
The snopes article did not disprove the reliability that the test was given to 8th graders, it made a incorrect conclusion, imo, that the public education system has dumbed down todays students. I disagree with snopes. First of all, kids today can't even pass basic skills tests in high school that are multiple choice. in orther words, we give them the answers and they still can't answer it. again, entitlements bring along laziness. if we had a great education system, than more than 1/2 of high school studewnts could find iraq on a map.
 
In the class I teach I've actually used the differences between from letters written by soldiers in the Civil War vs. letters written by current soldiers.

"The enemy was noble, a brave soul, fighting for what he believes is proper and good, but is with reproach as well as honorable, no less esteemed."

vs.

"It's fookin' hot ova here. You ever wiped ya *** in a dessert? Don't. Sand and **** all up in yer crotch. Haven't seen a playboy not once in a year. And these chicks, talk about ugly. Holla!"

Which, btw, is word for word from an actual letter that one of my students gave to me.
 
That's ridiculous to try to argue that this "test" proves anything other than curriculum being different in 1895 then now.

Unless you really think I'm supposed to feel stupid that I cannot convert, in my head, bushel's to cubic feet. Why could I- who freaking uses bushel's as a unit of measurement anymore except for a farmer I guess- why the hell should we teach that?

I could, in 8th grade- do algebra and solve word problems, which is all that test is asking for (just not in today's words). I would venture to guess most on this board could.

I took Texas History and could easily write 500 words on most any subject. I could have told you about the different era's in American History thematically.

As to the grammar excercizes I could not then, nor could I now, ever have done any of those things tested for. However, I was taught to write from a very young age, and learned how to do all those things through practice and experience. Nobody has ever asked me to diagram a sentence, they just want to know that I can write one.

This thing- like most like it, is ********.

Now, I don't think we need a Federal Department of Education, but that has nothing to do with this stupid *** "test" Also, lets remember that in 1895 we didn't educate everyone. Hell even in the30's my grandpa just quit after 7th grade.
 
Hell even in the30's my grandpa just quit after 7th grade.
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and he was probably better educated than a lot of students graduating high school today.
 
An excellent way to get smarter eigth graders would be to flunk all the non-brilliant sevent graders and put 'em to work picking cotton or cleaning toilets.
 
Who cares now if you can memorize the state capitals- when will that EVER come in handy when they can be looked up in a manner of seconds, and I can download anything and everything I need to know about the geography, history, climate, attractions, lodgings and restaurants of a city I'm going to in a minute or 10.
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I sure hope society is not put in a position where these so-called modern conveniences are taken away. i'm pretty sure complete chaos would ensue.
 
that damned dog was STARING at me, how the hell am I supposed to take a test with a damn satan hound staring me down, ****.
 
I don't know if we can compare which era of 8th graders is "smarter", but we should all acknowledge that today's children are much worse at reading and writing.

So, the U.S. has done a great job with the Dept. of Education. Now, kids can't read and write near as well...but they CAN use the Internet, get free condoms on demand, talk back to the teacher without repercussions, listen to their i-Pod in class, recite the lyrics to the most recent Eminem song, etc.

Ahhhh...thank God we've spent billions on public education. Where would we be if we hadn't??
 
Maybe parents were more involved directing their kids back then. Maybe instead of looking at how schools fail the children, we should look at how parents fail them.

There are plenty of problems with the educations system, but I don't think overspending is one of those problems. If we are turning out dolts, it's the whole village, not just the school.

If you are unhappy about how your school board spends the money or how the government does so, you have the means to be heard. What's the turnout for a school board election on average? How many parents on this thread can name half the members of the school board and the place where they meet?

Too many people want to send their check in and then whine that they're aren't getting what they pay for. It takes more than mailing a check.

Thus ends the rant. Carry on blaming the horribly overpaid teachers.
 
My grandfather had to quit school after the 6th grade to work a cotton farm. My great-grandfather was a sharecropper who got married at 13, and was illiterate until he died in the early 1980's.

The point is that school really wasn't "for everybody" as a matter of practice in the country until after WW2, so we're still working the kinks out.
 
The thread title includes the word "smart," so I think this is somewhat on-topic. If not, please ignore.

Many believe that IQ tests are meaningless. I'm on the fence when it comes to the validity of the concept of measuring one's intelligence through tests such as Stanford-Binet, Wechsler, etc. But assuming there is something to it, it's interesting to note that we contemporary humans perform better than our recent ancestors - about 5 IQ points better. (I assume they've tweaked the tests so that the average score is still 100.)
 
The test isn't that hard. There are some terms that aren't in common use anymore, but that hardly means the test is difficult. The climate questions are obviously hard, but the answers aren't anything that would be impossible for an 8th grader that studied the subject matter. I certainly learned certain scientific concepts in middle school that I don't remember anymore.

I don't see how this is any type of indictment on modern education. It is simply a different curriculum than is common today. I think it also important to remember that the level of detail expected of an 8th grader, even in 1895, would be much less than a college educated person. This test doesn't indicate how in depth the students learned the subject.
 
I don't have time this evening to answer all of them.....just a few. So, what's the big deal....? Seems easy enough to me......

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.

a.) Capitalize the first word in a sentence.
b.) Capitalize the pronoun I and the interjection O.
c.) Capitalize the first word in a quotation.
d.) Capitalize the first word in a direct question falling within a sentence.
e.) Capitalize all nouns referring to the deity and to the Bible and other sacred books.
f.) Use a capital letter for President and Presidency when these refer to the office of
President of the United States.
g.) Use a capital letter for official titles before the names of officials.
h.) Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives formed from proper nouns.
i.) Capitalize every word, except conjunctions, articles and short prepositions in the
titles of works of literature, music, art, books, etc. The first word of a title is always
capitalized.

2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.

a.) Noun
b.) Verb
c.) Adjective
d.) Adverb
e.) Pronoun
f.) Preposition
g.) Conjunction
h.) Interjection
i.) Article
Articles, interjections, conjunctions and prepositions have no modifications.

3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.

a.) Verse - A sequence of words arranged metrically according to some system of design;
a single line of poetry.
b.) Stanza - A group of lines of verse forming one of the divisions of a poem or song. It
is typically made of four or more lines of verse and typically has a regular pattern in
the number of lines and the arrangement of meter and rhyme.
c.) Paragraph - A distinct section or subdivision of a chapter, letter, etc. usually dealing
with a particular point. It is begun on a new line, often indented.

4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run.

For verb forms regarded as regular and not normally indicated include:
a.) Present tenses formed by adding -s to the infinitive (or -es after o, s, x, z, ch, and
sh) as waits, searches;
b.) Past tenses and past participles formed by simply adding -ed to the infinitive with
no other changes in the verb form, as waited, searched;
c.) Present participles formed by simply adding -ing to the infinitive with no other
changes in the verb form, as waiting, searching;

Principal Parts - do, does, did, doing; lie, lies, lied, lying; lay, lays, laid, laying; run, runs,
ran, running. These are all irregular verbs.

5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.

a.) In English syntax the term "case" refers to the subjective (or nominative), objective,
and possessive forms of pronouns and the possessive form of nouns. I is the subjective
(or nominative) case of the personal pronoun, me is the objective case, and my or mine
are the possessive case. Mary's is the possessive case of Mary showing ownership by
Mary herself.

6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.

a.) Punctuation - the act, practice or system of using standardized marks in writing and
printing in separate sentences or sentence elements, or to make the meaning clearer.
b.) The Period [.] - use a period at the end of declarative sentences, indirect questions
and most imperative sentences, after most abbreviations. Do no use a period at the end
of a title of a book, article, poem, etc.; In a typed manuscript, abbreviations and the
initials of names do not have spacing after the periods, i.e., U.S.A., T.S.Eliot, e.g.
c.) The Question Mark [?] - use a question mark at the end of a direct question, after
each query in a series if you wish to emphasize each element. Use a question mark
enclosed in parentheses to express doubt about a word, fact or number. Do not use a
question mark at the end of an indirect question.
d.) The Exclamation Mark [!} - use the exclamation mark after a particularly forceful
interjection or imperative sentence.
e.) The Semicolon [;] - Use a semicolon between two independent clauses when they are
not joined by a coordinating conjunction; to separate clauses joined only by conjunctive
adverbs.
f.) The Colon [:] - Use a colon before a long formal quotation, formal statement, or a list
of items. Use a colon after a main clause when the succeeding clause or clauses explain
the first clause.
g.) The Dash [-] - Use a dash to indicate an abrupt break in the structure of the
sentence or an unfinished statement. Use a dash to set off a summary or a long
appositive.
h.) Parentheses [()] - Use parentheses to enclose material that is explanatory,
supplementary, or exemplifying. Use parentheses to enclose cross-references.
i.) Quotation Marks [" "] - Use quotation marks to enclose all direct quotations. Use
single quotation marks [' '] to enclose a quotation within another quotation. Use
quotation marks to enclose words spoken of as words, words used in special senses, or
words emphasized.
j.) The Apostrophe ['] - Use the apostrophe to indicate the possessive case of the noun
or pronoun. Use the apostrophe to indicate the omission of letters or figures. Use the
apostrophe to indicate the plurals of figures, letters, and words referred to as such,
i.e., Watch your p's and q's. There are too many "and's" in your sentence.
k.) The Hyphen [-] - Use the hyphen to divide a word at the end of a line. Use a hyphen
between parts of a compound modifier preceding a noun.
 
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