1912 8th grade exam
 

How well can any of us do on this?

What about today's eighth graders?

1912 Eighth-Grade Exam Stumps 21st-Century Test-Takers

Those were the days...when children were well schooled!

Ouch! Could not do well with that at all.

Take a test that's not multiple choice? Is that possible today?

Thought so - should have posted this on the starting salary thread that turned into a discussion about today's education.

After reading this test, one would have to conclude that our educational system has been dumbed down significantly over the past 100 years ... the $$$ gazillions we spend on it notwithstanding.

Makes me wonder how well schooled you were. Amazing how hard it was for many of our senior readers here. Many of our Florida 5th grade students would have little difficulty with this test.

Here is a sample of an eight grade Florida math test. I even made it easy for you by picking one with some multiple choice for you. See how well you were schooled. Dee, you can do only the multiple choice ones if you want. Let me know how well you did.Texan, I can dummy it down and give you a 5th grade one if you wish

http://fcat.fldoe.org/fcat2/pdf/samp..._TB_WT_r2g.pdf

Really? All of these questions are recall and don't require any critical thinking skills! The lowest level in Blooms Taxonomy and Webbs Depth of Knowledge. May I suggest that you take the time to look up both of those? Your judgements may become more informed... That is called inductive reasoning!
I do find it amusing to see this... I think this is why it has been said Americans are really good at recalling fact and can not hold a candle to other countries in critical thinking!

Ditto and thank you.

Be careful not to throw too much education on this forum. It only gets you in hot water:)

Doug ... quite nice of you to do this. Math for me is no problem but I was more focused on the other elements of the test. So tell me ... do you really think todays HS or even most college grads would excel in the 1912 questions related to (updated) history, geography, spelling etc? We both know the answer is no.

Regarding critical thinking skills... obviously important but if there's no data in there to start with, it doesn't work too well.

Think you really need to read Pam's post. Memorization of facts is not really that important to being successful in today's world. Facts are available at your fingertips (tablet, smartphone etc.). The ability to use our brains to solve complex problems using the tools available to us IS critical.

Do you think that Doctors, nurses, pharmacists etc. rely on memorized facts to dispense medications or do differential diagnosis? We all use the advanced tools available to us, on top of our experienced knowledge, to make these critical decisions.

We can't judge today's education system from a test available in 1912. It's just not relevant IMHO.

I am not saying education is all about memorizing facts and your question about Doctors etc is of course rhetorical. Yes we use PCs, automation etc. But, for the Doc to use it, he/she has to show some level of mastery Ie knowledge in his head) before hitting the keyboard wouldn't you agree?

History is also a good example. IMHO, if a young kid is pretty much devoid of any basic historical facts ( eg Caesar crossing the Rubicon to just pick one ), being able to keyboard is not likely to yield insights into the lessons of history ... why did he cross it? What did it mean for the future of the Roman Republic etc My point is ... the 1912 exam simply implies that kids had to know a lot more than they do today.

That's a statement you can't make. You don't know that from that sample 1912 exam. You only know that they had to know 'different' things. Unless of course you remember 1912 personally.

Just another example of how some people think EVERTHING was better 'back in the day'. You can keep thinking this and I'll take some of the brainiacs we have nowadays who fill the halls of Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Caltech etc. etc. I loved my grandparents with all my heart but to say that they were smarter (educated around 1912) than the majority of us grandchildren (over 20 of us) educated in the 60 - 70's is just not correct. Heck a lot of their generation dropped out while in HS to get a job while most if not all of the grandchildren went to college. They and our parents did a great job to make sure we continued our education.

But if you insist that 1912 was better education based on this test then you entitled to your opinion.

To me, it is like they say the middle class is shrinking....we have a lot of real smart folks for sure.....just that pool has shrunk as a percentage, and the pool of kids that don't give a crap has grown (see parents)

I got as far as the directions on help for using your calculator and your argument immediately went down the drain for me. Are you kidding me???