An 8th Grade Education
 

What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

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 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, and Howe?
8. Name events 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, 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.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.

Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!

Re: An 8th Grade Education
 

I doubt many teachers, today, could pass those tests! LOL!

Re: An 8th Grade Education
 

Back in 1988 when my daughtger was four years old our church allowed a private Christian school to come in and make a presentation.

This was not one of those schools staffed by uneducated church members but a classical school with degreed teachers who taught in the manner this thread refers to.

At the orientation session introducing the school the principle showed us text books for elementary school from the late 1800's and early 20th century. They were books you not expect until High School today.

We enrolled my daughter in their kindergarten at the age of 4 and by the end of the year she could read and write cursive. The school relocated about an hour away from our house and she was unable to attend beyond kindergarten which I hated.

I remember when I went to her classroom seeing the first grade classes end of the year essay's pinned to the hallway walls. They did not just take one or two exceptional students papers but every single students papers were up there and they were amazing. By the end of the first grade these kids were all writing papers you would be hard pressed to see until the 6th grade in public school.

The principal said that children rise to the level of the expectation and the expectations are exceedingly low in today's educational system.

Re: An 8th Grade Education
 

Indeed...

Re: An 8th Grade Education
 

It's very disheartening to see the children of this country not see the potential in that brain God gave them!!!

Re: An 8th Grade Education
 

Ah yes, the dumbing down of America!

Unfortunate, but true.
As a child I often was embarrassed to say my mom only went through 8th grade.
She was a great speller, reader, basic math etc but ....that elusive HS graduate title.

I now have my mother's 8th grade notebooks ( one room school rural WI) and my dad's JrHi notebooks ( large city, Jr Hi even in the dark ages).
These are late 1920's and early 30's-----

My mother had "science" which was the level of my hs biology class; complete with the labs we had to draw and label.
One of dad's notebooks (8th gr) was for electricity class. They had to diagram how electricity worked and be able to draw the steps to wire a house.
Everything they had was very detailed. None of the just hit the highlights of a topic.

I revised my opinions of their educational backgrounds. Of course, I knew they were smart, but this gave me "evidence".
I was amazed at the detail in these and other topics.

Re: An 8th Grade Education
 

One of dad's classes was for accounting. Very neat and detailed ledgers were part of the class.
He had jr hi lessons on the level of an adult class I took nights in 1990.

Re: An 8th Grade Education
 

:thumbsup

I read a book titled "Do Hard Things," written by two 17-year-old twin brothers, that basically says that same thing.