cktimes.ca Archives for Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent


Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent

With Jim and Lisa Gilbert

Eighth grade education is not what it used to be

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

A good friend of ours, Mary Lenover from Ridgetown sent us a very interesting E-Mail the other day that really made us stop and think about the whole concept of education and how it has changed. She sent us a copy of an 8th Grade Final Exam from 1895 and although there are a number of things on this exam that we consider to be no more than mindless memorization, there are some other things that are really valuable.

In all cases, however, the content level and expectations are way beyond the expectations we have of students to-day. In fact, a PH.D graduate looking at this same Gr. 8 test remarked that she was not sure "...if she could have graduated from the 8th grade in 1895"!

We thought that we would share with you this week some excerpts from that Gr. 8 test and see how you would have done on your "graduation test" in 1895. Don't ask how we did! It's too embarrassing!

GRAMMAR (Time, one hour)

Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.
Define Verse, Stanza, and Paragraph.
What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of lie, play and run.
Define case, Illustrate each Case.
What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

ARITHMETIC (Time, 1.25 hours)

Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
A wagon box is 2ft. deep, 10 ft. long and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
If a lad of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. for tare (?).
District No.33 has a valuation of $35,000.00. What is the necessary levy to carry on school seventh months at $50.00 per month, and save $104.00 for incidentals?
Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20.00 per metre?
Find bank discounts on $300.00 for 90 days ( no grace) at 10 percent.
What is the cost of a square farm at $15.00 per acre, the distance which is 640 rods.
10) Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note and a Receipt.

ORTHOGRAPHY (Time, one hour)

What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
What are elementary sounds? How classified?
What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals , dipthong, cognate letters, linguals.
Give four substitutes foe caret "u".
Give two rules for spelling words with final "e". Name two exceptions under each rule.
Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi,dis,mis,pre,semi,post,non,inter,mono,sup.
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.
Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight,fane, fain,feign,vane, vain,vein,raze,rase, rays.
Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and syllabication.


And that was only part of the SIX HOUR exam! It kind of makes one glad that they are not in Gr. 8 in1895 doesn't it? It also casts a whole new light on the often quoted line....."I've only got an 8th grade education"!!



Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.