Goldwater

Only if thine were grading on the curveth with people ofeth today would I think I might yet gain better than a C on yee olde test.

Most of those are my favorite subjects except the Arithmatic had me scratching my head a few times, bushells, pecks, what the?.....

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Davocrat

Oh come on. We know you love show tunes.
YouTube - Guys and Dolls Faith Prince Bushel and a Peck

Suck me, Ponzi.

Guyker

I lean strongly towards "hoax"--I have textbooks from 1859, 1880, and 1898, and no, they're not dealing with stuff like this. One of the geography texts actually has Arizona and New Mexico reversed, and the boundary between two other states goes east/west instead of North/South. Hoax or not, we aren't getting the education we pay for, for whatever reason.

michaelr

I am going to print this list and take it to my grandson's school. The teachers their know me as I donate time every now and again. Great thread!!!

apatriotsmanifest.com KI7VQ.COM PH Forum Rules!

wyly

it's also what is relevant.... I would have difficulty passing my kids high school exams...first it's retention, I studied much of they have but I don't use it, never will and I don't care....2nd things change, my kids are learning things that didn't exist when I went to high school.....what's relevant today is not what was relevant/important 20-50 or 100 yrs ago....why would my kids need to know about bushels and pecks? I did but then I grew up in an heavy agricultural area so it was relevant...I struggle with computers and ask my kids for help, they own me....history, politics, bushels and pecks I rule(but they're gaining fast)....

Djinn

I love old textbooks... Here's a spread from a teacher's reference math text, dated 1808.

(click to enlarge)

mjdsr

It is because our so called public schools are government schools. And we all know that anything the government attempts to run, ultimately fails. I think it is all part of the governments evil plan to keep us poor and stupid! LOL

Guyker

Well, they certainly are not failing with that part of the plan, dammit. Keep me posted on how the rest of it plays out.

Blueneck

I used to buy books at the thrift store and once picked up a "Family Medical Guide" without looking at the date. It was 1945. God, you can't believe the diseases people had back then. Pretty awful stuff.

caffeine

The best point made in the snopes article is about all the knowledge that's absent in that exam. The maths only touches on arithmetic - when I was in the equivalent of 8th grade (am I right in thinking that's ages 12-13?) we were doing algebra and trigonometry. I was also studying the operating of the digestive and respiratory systems; being taught how light and sound waves work; learning about electron shells and chemical reactions and conjugating verbs in French. I'd consider that knowledge all more useful than learning about cases and when to use 'whence' or 'whom' - my English works fine without them.

Also - let's look at some of the questions:

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided

Or - rote learn somebody elses way of classifying history.

7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.

Not as hard as it sounds - how many republics were there in Europe in 1895? France, Switzerland and San Marino? I'm struggling to think of any more.

Lastly - regardless of all this nonsense about grammar - let's look at a simple statistic:

Illiteracy among Americans aged 14 years and over:

1890: 13.3%
1979: 0.6%

That's not dumbing down.