WAKE UP!!! WAKE UP!!! Phew! What a nightmare...a very, very common nightmare. Oh, don't get me wrong. There is going to be a test, but this is a test for which you can't really study...and one more than likely your great-grandparents might have taken.
As it so happens, the test results of the latest Regents exams were made public this week in New York State. Parents and the general public were warned beforehand that the the Regents exam was going to be much harder, so we were prepared for much lower test scores as in previous years. As expected the scores were abysmal. 7 out of 10 students in our NYC schools tested below grade level.
As we debate the cause - crowded classrooms, lack of funds, union intransigence, Mayoral tinkering etc. the fact is that little Billy and Betty Lu ain't learnin' nothing these daze. Most of our children have libraries (including unlimited resources online), multiple teachers and aides, and all of the opportunities to obtain reading materials in every single language in the world (and even some that Hollywood has invented) at their fingertips, yet our children cannot read, write, and do simple arithmetic. Our children are failing or, more accurately, we are failing our children.
It just so happens, that a few years ago, a donation was made to the Bullitt County History Museum in Kentucky of an Eighth Grade Exam for Bullitt County from 1912. As is described on the museum's website:
"Bullitt County Schools were mostly one-room schools in those days, scattered around the rural county. Students came together at the county courthouse once or twice a year to take this "Common Exam." It was apparently a big deal....[s]ome scholarships were provided to those who passed to go on to high school, which was also a big deal back then. In those days, high school was sometimes another county away and a rare thing for many farm children to be able to otherwise attend."
Of course there are obvious differences. First, the 1912 exam was a short,straight exam with 57 questions for which the exam taker had to write out the answers. The Regents exam is much longer, but all with multiple choice answers. What did we do differently when our children learned in one room schoolhouses with multiple grades with limited resources and supplies that we are not doing now? There is another big difference - very few children in 1912, especially in rural areas, advanced to high school and most stopped their formal education at the 8th grade. But they completed the 8th grade with at least the skills to read, write, and do arithmetic.
So, just for fun, let's see if you are smarter than a 1912 rural Kentucky 8th grader! I have extracted some of the questions that these students had to answer for the 1912 exam. Let's see if you could have advance to that 1912 High School with a scholarship and a chance to leave the farm for college.
Here are the rules. I know, we at Commentarama do not like rules, but try anyway to adhere to these few. Each question will count for 100 points. You must earn at least 70% to advance. There is no time limit, and I will post original questions and answers at around Noon Eastern standard time. And NO CHEATING by doing internet searches for your answers either!
Something else to remember, this is test from 1912, so some of the answers may have changed in the last 100 years. There will be extra points given for those who can come up with the correct answer from 1912 and 2013! Give your final test scores (be honest) and we will see if you are smarter than a 1912 8th grader!
Okay, open up your exam books and......begin!
Spelling:
Okay, really, we can't do the spelling portion, but extra credit will be given if you can reasonably explain why! [In the original exam, there were 40 words that were given by the exam giver that the student had to spell]
Arithmetic:
1. A man bought a farm for $2400 and sold it for $2700. What percent did he gain?
2. A school enrolled 120 pupils and the number of boys was 2/3 the number of girls. How many of each sex were enrolled? [Look! A question about sex!]
3. At $1.62 1/2 a cord, what will be the cost of a pile of wood 24 ft. long, 4 ft. wide and 6 ft. 3in. high?
[Personally, I have never been very good at math, so there will be no bonus question.]
Grammar:
1. How many parts of speech are there. Define each.
2. What is a Personal Pronoun? Decline "I".
3. Diagram - The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.
Bonus if you known what "decline" means.
Extra Bonus if you know what it means to diagram a sentence.
Geography:
1. Locate the following countries which border each other: Turkey, Greece, Servia, Montenegro, Roumania [Remember, it's 1912]
2. Name in the order of their size the three largest States in the United States [in 1912]. [Extra points for what those three states are today]
3. Through which waters would a vessel pass in going from England through the Suez Canal?
Bonus: Name and give the capitals of the States touching the Ohio River.
Physiology:
1. Name the organs of circulation.
2. Define Cerebrum; Cerebellum.
3. Why should we study Physiology?
Bonus: Give at least five rules to be observed in maintaining good health.
Civil Goverment:
1. To what four governments are students in school subjected?
2. Name and define the three branches of the goverment of the United States.
3. Name three rights given by Congress by the Constitution and two rights denied Congress.
Bonus: What is a copyright? Patent right? [Andrew: you are precluded from earning any bonus points for this question...]
History:
1. Who first discovered the following places - Florida, Pacific Ocean, Mississippi River, St. Lawrence River.
2. During what wars were the following battles fought: Brandywine, Great Meadows, Lundy's Lane, Antietam, Buena Vista.
3. Name 2 presidents who have died in office; three who were assassinated. [Extra credit for one more in each category]
Bonus: Who invented the following - Magneto, Telegraph, Cotton Gin, Sewing Machine, Telephone, Phonograph?
So, what's your score? Remember 100 points for each correct answer. The person who makes the highest score will win a free invisible T-shirt with "I Am Smarter Than A 1912 Bullitt County Kentucky 8th Grader" on it and the bragging rights that go with it!
UPDATE: As promised, here are the links to the original test with all of the questions and the answers.
Full Exam
Full Answers
Bev, I may not be smarter, but I am still alive... they probably aren't. So which one of us is smarter now! :P
ReplyDeleteBTW, I remember the Battle of Buena Vista. it was ugly. We lost a lost of great cartoon characters that day. Mickey was never the same afterwards. //sniff sniff
ReplyDeleteI think I got about 15 right. History and geography, something I consider strong suits, killed me.
ReplyDeleteThose battle are a great example. I know three of them but the other two no clue.
ReplyDeletewow, Lundy's Lane. Nice to see some love for the War of 1812. Now google The Rush Bagot agreement. In college, I pulled that answer out of my butt to pass a pop quiz in American history when the professor got pissed at the class for not paying attention in class :) Hell, today's kids get to use the calculator on their PC and still can't get the math questions right.
ReplyDeleteOh, and since I do feel the need to show off my MASSIVE brain power, I shall provide some answers:
ReplyDeleteGrammar 2: A personal pronoun is a noun activist who follows you around.
Geography 1: Ok, I found them all on Google Maps.
Geography 3: Troubled waters.
Physiology 1: The organ of circulation? Well, I suppose the genitalia get around.
Physiology 3: Required course.
Five rules of maintaining good health: morning constitutional, afternoon nap, no drinks larger than 16 oz., enemas, smoke less than 2 packs per day.
Civil 1: Bad government, corrupt government, tyrannical government, incompetent government... “the four winds” of government.
History 1: Blorg the caveman.
I got the question about discovery of the Mississippi River right, I think. I said it was a native American and his buffalo riding in a DeSoto automobile ;)
ReplyDelete.... and when I went to give an example on patents, I tried to say the current president invented "being an ass" only to then realize Jimmuh Carter had already patent protected it.
ReplyDeleteI object as this test does not reflect my cultural background. I will only respond if the questions are based on Playboy articles (and pictorials) written between 1960 and 1978.
ReplyDelete15/18 = 83% (With bonus points 17/18 = 94% Grammar and History)
ReplyDeleteSpelling can't be done because, DUH, you would have to spell out the words to us. It was probably done through dictation. Also, spell check. :P
Speaking of Grammar, there's a typo in the first grammar question. Who should be how.
Questions I didn't get:
Physiology #3, Civil Gov. #1, History #2
Okay, so 1912 kids were way better at memorizing than today's brats. These are almost all memorization problems. You'd think at 8th grade they would start having kids begin to think for themselves. Still a major problem in today's educational society. Kids will go through grade school, high school, even some colleges and will never learn how to think on their own. Or, if they make it into a college that tries to get them to think, they will burn out.
All for Andrew - Excellent, excellent answers!
ReplyDelete1. Bev, I may not be smarter, but I am still alive... they probably aren't. So which one of us is smarter now! :P
I think that is what someone will say about us in 2112 too when someone analyzes the 2013 SAT test and results...except they will not be able to read it (a la Idiocracy)!
2. I remember the Battle of Buena Vista. it was ugly. We lost a lost of great cartoon characters that day. Mickey was never the same afterwards. //sniff sniff
I spit out my coffee and nearly suffocated from laughter. The lawsuit will be filed tomorrow!
3. Physiology 3: Required course.
Also acceptable: "Because you made me." and "Why not?"
Koshkat - 15 right is excellent! You didn't cheat did you? ;-D
ReplyDelete10J - I actually got all of the battles in order when I first read the test. But I am not sure basic 8th graders could put them in the right century, much less which actual war.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, because you have all given such wonderfully creative answers and you tried SO hard AND you bothered to show up, each one of you will receive an invisible "I Am Smarter Than A 1912 Bullitt County Kentucky 8th Grader" T-Shirt! Please wait patiently by your mailboxes until it arrives or Congress decides how to bail out the US Postal Service pension plans...
ReplyDeleteWell, everyone wins except "Anonymous". All of your points have been deducted for being cheeky enough to point out that there was a typo in one of the grammar questions AND because Physiology #3, Civil Gov. #1, History #2 were the only questions that counted in your overall score. Oh, did not make that clear? ;-P
BTW, the original test has typos too! So take THAT, Anonymous!
Bev, You like that, huh? Yeah, the Toon Wars... very sad.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you, but I plan to still be around in 2112!
Andrew - It just so happens that movie theatre that I watched all those Disney cartoons in my "yute" was named "The Buena Vista Theater"! So it made it even more hysterical!
ReplyDeleteBev, LOL! I can see where that would add to the humor. :)
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I think this test is interesting. I also think the reaction I've seen in the media is interesting. Half the public seems freaked out that these kids were "smarter." The other half seems to realize that this is all about what you've been taught. If you asked these kids to take the SAT today, they would fare very, very poorly because they haven't learned the right skills.
15 out of 26 or so? Shameful. The math was easy especially if you know the volume of a cord of wood. Very handy for everyday use.
ReplyDeleteIf you asked these kids to take the SAT today, they would fare very, very poorly because they haven't learned the right skills.
ReplyDeleteI actually think you would be wrong on that and here is why. First, this test was not mandatory unless you wanted to move on. Remember that I repeated a few times that very few of the students in 1912 went on to high school and even fewer probably went on the college. So the students who took this test in 1912 were already highly motivated to continue their education. They would have learned the skills to take our SAT's.
And since only 30% are passing the NYS Regents exam, today's NYS students are learning the skills to pass that test either.
Koshcat - The knowing what the measurements of "cord of wood" is one of those things that must have been common knowledge at the time.
ReplyDeleteBev, True, these are the bright, motivated kids and they will do well, especially if given the chance to study. But you can't compare across eras like that because what is considered basic knowledge changes.
ReplyDeleteSome things, like truly simple math -- addition, subtraction, etc. are standard across all ages. But a lot of the math we deal with in schools today is of later invention. Things like computer science and modern chemistry didn't exist back them. Rules of grammar and spelling change. A lot of the logic and philosophy that we use today without even knowing it didn't exist in the past. Science changes. Etc. Ask these kids what the speed of light is and they'll stare at you like you're stupid.
At the same time, unneeded knowledge falls away. They don't teach how to build transistor tubes anymore because no one uses them. What's quicker... a horse or a river boat? No one cares today.
So while I think these kids are as bright as the better kids today, they are bright in different areas, areas that would not be considered all that smart today. So you can't compare "intelligence" across eras, you can only compare "knowledge."
As for kids not passing the tests today, that shows a failure of the school system.
I could have answered all the arithmetic questions, except I don't know how much wood is in a cord. (snicker)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I saw this on the web a couple weeks ago and....yeah. A few defenders of modern education tried to shrug it off by saying that "for the history questions, for instance, we now know that the real answers are different from what they thought." Er--(quickly rechecks history questions)--I didn't know there were multiple interpretations on which war included the Battle of Antietam, but okay.
T-Rav - It was the whole "cord of wood" math question, that made me decide that all people of 1912 must have been better at math than me. Okay, let's be honest, the primordial ooze was better at math than me...
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the history questions - yeah, they didn't know nothin'! Like that JFK was not assassinated by a lone gunman. And their knowledge of WWI OR WWII is non-existant! BUT, they did know hubris and that there is no boat that is unsinkable...
Diagram-The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.
ReplyDeleteWhat?! They were allowed to include a specifically Christian-related statement on a public school exam? How backwards were these people? Did they not have the ACLU et. al., to protect their fragile, sensitive mentalities from such bigotry and intolerance?
Thank God (I mean "goodness") we now live in more "enlightened" times.
Bev, I think they were also ticked that the curriculum for these subjects depended heavily upon rote memorization. Which, I don't really understand that criticism. Does that mean you're not really smart? Because then someone's going to have to explain to me how all those people were able to just pull out lengthy Latin references in their letters like nobody's business. Heck, I learned half of what I know from just memorizing it. Silly.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't worry. You can't possibly suck worse at math than my sisters do.
T-Rav, The problem with rote memorization is that a lot of people think that's what education is, but that's ridiculous. That's just one tiny part of it. Just like a computer, if you fill a brain with data but no idea what they mean or how to use them, then you've created useless people.
ReplyDeleteBev, They don't know that moon landing is fake either or that gold has "real value" unlike paper money or that the Fed lives under all of our beds.
ReplyDeleteSince this thread is about test questions, I finally have an excuse to post this. I've never really figured out whether it's anything more than an urban legend, but I really hope it is. Supposedly, it's a bonus question asked on a midterm exam by a chemistry professor at the University of Washington. It goes like this:
ReplyDelete"Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?"
Most of the students tried to answer the question using Boyle's Law, that gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed, or something similar. One student, however, apparently wrote the following:
"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.
"As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.
"With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.
"Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
"This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
"If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.
"The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being--which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God!"
If the story is true, this student was the only one to get an A.
Actually Andrew, we are discussing apples to oranges as far as who is smarter. You are basing your comments on specific knowledge and you are correct. I venture to say that there were no rural 8th graders in 1912 who could accurately describe the surface of Mars, Doppler radar, jet propulsion or nuclear fission. Though I cannot tell you what the measurements of a cord of wood might be or how or what to mix together to make gunpowder or why you must keep it dry.
ReplyDeleteBut my comments are based in a much broader way. Students have not changed. A motivated student will find a way to be educated even if they have to do it on their own on the dirt floor in front of a wood fire. But 1912 only motivated students went on to higher formal education and/or college. Today, EVERY student is encouraged to got to college even if they cannot read or write at a high school level.
Neither of the way we approach the question of who would be smarter is wrong or right. But it seems that we achieved more in the time between 1912 to 1970 than we have from 1960 to 2012.
At least in 1912, they accepted that not everyone should/could/would go on to higher education. OF course that left out minority students, women, and the general stupid/vacuous like Kim Kardashian or Matt Damons.
So those people wanted to have the equal opportunity to obtain a higher education. And fought hard for it which brought on that brief shining moment probably somewhere in the mid- to late '80's where we had true equality. But that slowly started morphing from "equality of opportunity" to "equality of outcome". And we have what we have today. A student doesn't really need to learn how to actually read or write anything to go to college...
Okay, I'm done...
"Rote memorization" - I contend that learning by rote is much deeper learning that learning by "concept". One really can't learn to read or write until one memorizes the letters and how to draw them. As long as someone speaks to you, you can learn to speak and to communicate, but not to read or write until your brain makes the connection from the sound and the picture.
ReplyDeleteAnd you cannot do that without first memorizing the letter. It's muscle memory.
I think it must be harder for children to really learn how to read today since they do not develop that sense memory of a letter or word by physically writing it over and over and over. Knowing where a letter is on a QWERTY keyboard and drawing a letter over and over are two completely different actions in the development of brain and rote memory/sense memory/muscle memory.
Bev, I agree with your first part.
ReplyDeleteThat's the point actually, you can't use this to say that these kids were smarter than anyone today because it's all apples and oranges. Innate intelligence is how well you can grab and process information and that isn't tested on tests like this... only memorization is tested. IQs are better at that because they test the brain's power to process rather than recall. That's where intelligence is.
And do suspect that these kids would be some of the smartest today if they were born today because of the fact they were considered the most promising. But simply transplanting them, which was trying to compare this test to how we would do on it is, would not end well.
I don't agree with the lament about everyone going to school or that we haven't come MUCH further between 1960 and the present than we did between 1917 and 1960. The difference between a Model T and a Ford Thunderbird is nothing compared to the difference between a world without computers, nano-technology, genetic manipulation, MRI machines and today.
And the problem with the idea of not educating everyone to a minimum level is that the modern world doesn't need that many ditch diggers.
On rote memorization, rote memorization is a tool. It involves only inputting data. Without the other tools that let you process it, all that knowledge is useless. Moreover, there is this idea in the conservative world that kids aren't learning fact today, and that's simply wrong. What is happening today is that they are expanding the analysis tools, they aren't wiping out the facts.
Andrew - I liken rote memorization to the building a house. Sometimes you just have to memorize what the letters and numbers and those dang-blasted multiplication tables (we called them "times tables")! In otherwords, one must have a solid foundation to have a platform for higher and wider learning. Even in the Bible, they knew not to build a house on sand, but on a solid foundation of rock...;-)
ReplyDeleteI must say that I remember more of the facts learned by rote and can put them better into context of a wider world than I can of any "concept" I learned. One can easily BS one's way through "conceptual learning", but "facts is just facts"...
Bev, Absolutely you need to memorize facts. Without that data, you can't even begin to learn to analyze. Facts, which you learn by rote, become the data points which you then learn to manipulate to learn skills. Those skills then let you exist in the real world where you need to spot new facts and process them as you go.
ReplyDeleteIt's all part of the same process. Without first learning the facts, you can't learn to analyze, and without learning to analyze, you're just a human paperweight.
Unfortunately, the education debate seems to have become about talk radio screaming that no one is doing rote "learning" anymore, which is flat out, verifiably false, and then attacking the analysis portion of education as "trendy." Usually with a finish that we shouldn't be edkat'n all these kids anyway.
Bev, I have had the opportunity lately to pay attention to education at the practical level, i.e. because of some kids I know, and at the statistical level.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that honestly, none of the horror stories taken as fact by talk radio are true. Education remains fundamentally very similar to what it was when we were kids. The changes are all at the edges. They still learn facts by rote. They don't spend their days learning to be gay or denouncing Christianity or supporting Obama. They get a lot of homework. They are asked to do a lot of things we weren't. They don't dumb classes down. Outside of the inner cities and a few southern states, most schools function at a high level.
Have bad things happened in places or with specific teachers? Sure, but with 3.8 million teachers and 132,000 schools in this country it would be a shock if you couldn't find a bad one now and then. And the fact that talk radio keeps talking about the same 3-4 old incidents should be screaming volumes about the legitimacy of their attacks.
Things are much better than people want to believe in the education world.
Let me put it this way. When I was in elementary and junior high, I got a reputation for being able to calculate stuff in my head (like "what is 76 x 49?") faster than anyone else. People would even make it a game, whether I could get the answer faster than they could punch it in on the calculator. There wasn't any magic or special genius involved on my part. I had just taken the time at some point to memorize 7x7 is 49, 7x8 is 56, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI won't say that memorization is all there is to education, because it's not. But it can work wonders, and its neglect in recent years for "analysis" and such has had some ill effects. As to whether or not kids are learning facts....I grade their exams. They're not.
T-Rav, The statistics don't bare that out. US education is making dramatic strides, test scores remain fairly constant and grades remain constant.
ReplyDeleteBut not all states are equal and the state you're in is generally ranked in the bottom ten year after year on educational measures. And Mississippi competes for dead last. I think you would find a real difference if you went to another state.
BTW, T-Rav, 20+ years ago when I was in engineering school, the lament of the professors was how stupid students had gotten from the way they were in the good old days. We knew nothing, didn't study, couldn't use our brains, etc. etc. One of the older professors had a chuckle about this and told me "This was the same thing I heard 30 years ago when I was a student."
ReplyDeleteIt's human nature to think that everything keeps getting worse now and was better in the past. Human beings have proven to be surprisingly consistent throughout time.
I think we all agree, but from different perspectives and from different native interests. I do not believe that students, teachers, politicians, scientists, inventors etc. are any different than they have been since the beginning of time. Human nature does not change, but technology does. The same problems have plagued humans since we crawled out of the primordial ooze (I like that phrase).
ReplyDeleteBut since I memorized that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, I am superior to all other humans.
More...we tend to judge others' intelligence by our own interests.
ReplyDeleteBev, That about sums it up.
ReplyDeleteI like that phrase too. I'd like to see a pool of said ooze.
Who's Columbus? ;P
Well, funny you should say that...here is a photo of primordial ooze!
ReplyDeleteNice! Didn't somebody drink some of this the other day? I seem to recall that making the news.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been in Greece 'cause they drink it all the time - Ouzo! That must be the Greek spelling...
ReplyDeleteIs that what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crawled out of?
ReplyDeleteT-Rav - All mutant things crawl out of ooze. It's a rule. Memorize it.
ReplyDeleteRules of grammar and spelling change.
ReplyDelete"The statistics don't bare that out.
By the site of it, yeah.