"I Only Had an Eighth Grade Education."

In reference to The Book of Confusion, August 17, 2004.

   Jason asks an interesting question. Could you have passed the eighth 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, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

   You’ll find below some highlights from the exam (an ordeal which required, or granted, up to five hours for its completion.

“Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.”
   I’m not so sure that today’s high-schoolers could do that. Wait. On second thought, I know most of today’s high-schoolers could never do it: not well enough for me to grant them a “C”, anyways.

“Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.”
   Do they teach anything of the sort these days? Mayhap the word “fundamental” is too politically incorrect for most educator’s tastes.

“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?”
   Again, a comparison with today’s high-schoolers. Do they even teach such concepts before Accounting 101 in college these days? I don’t think so.

“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.”

   With the loss of phonics in reading instruction has come the loss of etymology in orthographic instruction. I was fortunate enough to be home-schooled, and so had access to a superb etymological curriculum in high school, and I as well learned spelling etymologically throughout elementary school — like the proverbial child who can sound out any word (q.v. NRRF), I can spell any word, and tell you what most words likely mean, from simply hearing them.

   My answer to this travety — may I call it such? — is to ask you to take a moment of your time to read another page from the National Right to Read Foundation, entitled “ADD: America’s Deficit Disorder”. Are we as Americans so eager to classify and label our children with “ADD” and “ADHD” that we forget our own responsibilities?
   I have seen too many children “doped up” on Ritalin, etc. merely for being kids, to deceive myself, or to allow anyone else to deceive themselves, that psychiatrists and pediatricians are prescribing medications only to children who truly need them. I have seen too many children walking around looking hung over because of their medicine to allow America off the hook on this one. I plead with you: before you give that kid a pill, ask yourself,

“What could I be doing differently?”

Crosspost: Harbour in the Scramble, Ergle Street, and Academic Musings