How did our Grandparents stack up, compared to kids today

[Wheels]

Have you ever wondered how our Grandparents 8th grade education would compare with an education today. Here are two 8th grade final exams from 1895 and 1912.

 

[Aaron N]

How many kids in 1895 actually made it all the way to grade 8?

 

[Just Gina]

Wow! I remember through the years what they stopped teaching in school just from when I was a kid, and when my kids were in school.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

Impressive

 

[Newboomer]

Impressive

A good number of college kids couldn't pass those tests.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

It looks like it is a sophomore college equivalent.
What do you say to a graduate of Liberal Arts degree?

"I'd like to supersize those fries please"

 

[Tundra Tiger]

That's funny. My grandparents were born, grew up, and lived in the county next to Salina. They never lived anywhere else. It is where I was born and raised as well.

My grandparents were smart people, but not book smart. I don't think either made it to 8th grade. Both both had incredible work ethics. Grandma spent her entire work career with a specialized job at a local manufacturing plant. Grandpa was a gifted mechanic and spent over 40 years as the mechanic at the Dodge dealership.

Times were very different and, IMHO, so much better in so many ways. I have always felt humbled and blessed to have had the example they provided me. The funny thing? They always wanted me to have better. Looking back and seeing it differently, I already had it as good as it possibly could get. I still tell people to this day I am chasing the man that he was.

 

[TSIBINDI]

...I doubt SIRI could pass those tests.

 

[R.M.C.]

Incredible lol thanks for sharing!!

 

[BRICKBURN]

My Grandmother got through grade 9 in that era. Until the day she died she could knowledgably correct all of her children and grandchildren on a variety of subjects. You never questioned her redirection on your use of the English language. Even all those grandchildren with those fancy degrees.
Thanks for bringing back great memories of an incredible lady.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Have you ever wondered how our Grandparents 8th grade education would compare with an education today. Here are two 8th grade final exams from 1895 and 1912.

View attachment 519742

View attachment 519741

I failed.

 

[rookhawk]

A good number of college kids couldn't pass those tests.

Most of those questions (other than grammar) are on the GMAT. The GMAT is for grad school admissions. It’s written at the 11th grade level and most people can’t pass it. Nothing particularly hard on it, but all require inferences derived from common sense and real-world facts.

That’s why the above is hard today. Few people have the basic knowledge for the inferences whether volume of a bushel, or weight of a ton, or conversion of yard to meter, or length or a yard/section/piece.

No kid in 1890 failed to order 13 posts for a 120’ fence posted every 10’. Everyone gets that question wrong on exams today. Apparently, ass-whoopings for being a post short phased out over time.

 

[Newboomer]

Most of those questions (other than grammar) are on the GMAT. The GMAT is for grad school admissions. It’s written at the 11th grade level and most people can’t pass it. Nothing particularly hard on it, but all require inferences derived from common sense and real-world facts.

That’s why the above is hard today. Few people have the basic knowledge for the inferences whether volume of a bushel, or weight of a ton, or conversion of yard to meter, or length or a yard/section/piece.

No kid in 1890 failed to order 13 posts for a 120’ fence posted every 10’. Everyone gets that question wrong on exams today. Apparently, ass-whoopings for being a post short phased out over time.

I got caught on that one in High School math and never forgot it. 100 feet of fence, a post every 10 feet, 10 posts, right? No, dumbass, you need a starter post, therefore, 11 posts.

 

[Kimbo]

Great article and comments. My grandpa was one of 16 children raised on a SC farm and had to drop out of school after the third grade. ( He always talked about wishing he could have gotten an education). He plowed barefooted and looked for fresh cow patties to cool his feet off in summer. He welcomed any chance to get away as he said he was tired of looking at the ass end of a mule. Got his wish and was called up as an infantryman in WWI, but the war ended while on a troopship. He left farming and SC and developed into a truck mechanic working two 8 hour jobs most of his life.
Like many people back then, I imagine he would have flunked those tests.
However, singlehandedly he could breakdown a Mack truck and build it back.
He was a crackerjack sharp shooter too.

 

[Safari Dave]

I read through some of my grandmothers books, tests, etc.,. a few year's ago.

She was in high school in the early 1930's.

Good golly!

Kid's had to actually know stuff back then.



There is no way that the average U.S. college graduate of today could pass the tests that she used to take in high school in 1932.

The dumbing down of America...



I hired a Professional, Licensed Engineer a few year's ago with a B.S. from a well-know U.S. university.
My managerial assistant, and I, and a couple of well-read men who didn't graduate college were having a discussion about how a bill becomes a law by going through the legislative and executive branches of the US government a few year's ago. He sit there, dumbfounded.

After the discussion was over, he ask me how did I know that. I told him that I learned it in high school civics, but I had read the U.S. Constitution several times.

Poor guy still doesn't have a clue.

 

[fourfive8]

How did our grandparents stack up? I will guarantee none had ADD from staring into a cellphone most of the time like half or more of our younger population does now!