Are You Being Dumbed Down? Want to Take an 8th Grade Test From 1895 To Find Out?

reply to post by sizzle


What an excellent post to hold the mirror of ignorance up to not just an 8th Grader but us all (I’m from the UK and not familiar with the age classification guessing its 13/14yrs?). I found it so funny to see the initial posts from people of ‘adult’ age, I guess, grappling with and trying to understand the question heheheheee. Classic! Then people not getting the point trying to debate the pertinence of the questions contents, again so funny.

People, the point is that we’d have the school teachers themselves, teaching these modern 8th grade children, who whilst they would get some of the questions right some wouldn’t even understand the semantics. Never mind the 8th graders. And those waiting for the poster to post the answers…………. Hahahahahaheheeee

Great post!

reply to post by sizzle


Yet, most people in this thread continue to discuss it as if it was real?

Why "possibly" a hoax? Do you really believe that the 8th grade test would be more difficult than the teacher's exam from 15 years before? (check the Snopes link for the exam)

BTW, kudos on being able to answer these difficult questions.

[edit on 5/4/08 by ConspiracyNut23]

reply to post by ConspiracyNut23


Yes,
If you would browse through the pages a bit,
most of us decided it was in the spirit of fun and challenge.
And it was.

I dont think any of those subjects is near as important as the subject of mastering money. Of course language and English classes are important, however the subject of the mastery of money is not even glanced upon in US schools and it happens to be the most important subject in everyone's lives.
Money is merely energy and purchasing power...but to me they try and make it seem like such a complex, boring, and unentertaining subject in school. They seem to even steer students away from it.
Its just something you will never learn in any public school system, because money is so abstract.
I gotta say this...it doesn't matter if your dumbed down...choose what you want to learn about...but if you cannot master money you will become a slave to it.
If a larger majority of americans devoted themselves to the mastery of money, we could literally steal the power from the corporate elite and drop the 90/10 ratio to something more appropriate. Its not right that 10 percent control 90 percent of the wealth and 90 percent control 10 percent of the wealth. But complaining and getting scared aint gonna do #...you gotta beat them at their own game.
START A CORPORATION OF YOUR OWN

reply to post by iiinvision


WoW!
Words nearly fail me on your post, and I am an aspiring writer. If I were a mod I would give you an applause for incentive. I agree that this idea could be a key. Thank you!

I believe its a very important key...but I believe we need an entire ring of similarly important keys to reinstate and revive democracy. We need writers and journalists to actually report the real news. I think sites like these are important because people become informed of the truth and that, to me, is the most powerful armament a citizen can have.

If the masses can learn the true version of history by actively seeking it, and if they can actually develop the motivation to want to learn it, by breaking free of their mental strongholds, they will recognize the milestones of tyranny( as RFK jr so eloquently put it) and will simply not allow it in anyway shape or form.

We need citizens demanding an updated version of the nullified Fairness Act, vanquished by president Reagan as a favor to his financial backers.

We need citizens to be fully aware of what is necessary and pertinent today! not what was necessary and pertinent decades ago, or the latest celebrity gossip. Average Americans know more about Britney Spears than how our centralized banking system works or how it got there in the first place. And to me, that is simply horrendous!

Im hoping that as we meander along farther into the age of information, people will realize it in one of those AHA! moments. But that needs to come quickly, for the roots of fascism have taken hold and the complete end of democracy is imminent if we, as a collective group of human # ing beings dont wake up.

Just one final note on this subject. To me the current education establishment. Is more interested in indoctrination then education.
They want students to be able to quote the mantra of the Godless
Worldview. They don't want critical thinking to be outside the established
orthodoxy.
The truth of this statement is being played out right now; in several
states legislators. As laws that assure freedom to critique the established
orthodoxy, are being proposed. These laws are being fought against,
by the defenders of the established order, and maintainers of the elitist
world view.

Of course kids are being dumbed down, I will tell you guys a story as I was thinking of opening up a new topic but it would be better here, I was working at the grocery store having dinner, where I overheard a conversation a mother I believe who was in a math class, her daughters taking math, she was telling her kids about how they would have... I believe a TA taking kids out of her kids class for extra help, and she was telling them that there are 9 students in her class who need extra help.

I don't know whats going on here, but it is just terrible what is happening, We assume that is nearly half the class. It is almost as bad as teachers just passing students on to the next grade because they can't read or have a disability or something. My brother in laws sister has a very low reading level and they just passed her to the next grade none the less.

This test is not relevant because I can list at least 5 questions that an eight grader today could easily answer but your typical 8th grader from 1895 wouldn't know.
1. what is a DVD? a CD? how do they differ?
2. name the difference between Mac and PC?
3. What is a megabyte?
4. Which is larger a megabyte or a gigabyte?
5. How would you upload a photo to the web?

see what I mean?

Another thing one as to remember is Literacy rates, Quite a lot of people back in 1895 and earlier wouldn't have been that literate (especially kids of poor and likely illiterate families and rural dwellers) or only have relatively minor ability when it came to writing/reading perhaps limited to just writing their names or personal things. Most of the literate individuals would've been in the Upper-class, Aristocracy/ Rulers and people like Priest or Clergy...etc.

So if that test was real and not a hoax then who would have had that level of tuition to be able to sit that test back then? the general population? OR only family of/ or members of Religious Clergy, Children of wealthy land/ business owners and other high ups?.

If the people who had the level of tuition for that type of test were well offs then I couldn't say I would be surprised after all you would be in smaller class sizes (maybe even alone) with the best teachers around with full access to the best items of the time and your family would likely be competing with a rival family to the point were if you made a fool of yourself by failing you would be cut off from inheriting in later life heh, so the incentive for passing would be very large.

You would also have to factor in on perhaps some of the Math or Science questions would revolve around theories of the time that were accepted as truth. But that would generally be considered as being disproved or proven wrong by todays standards

---

As someone mentioned earlier that when they went to school, if they failed they got held back until they passed exams set at the level they were working at. If I had that to deal with I certainly would've revised/ studied in my own time, probably more so since most of my teachers were as clueless as the rest of us.

reply to post by Marshall Ormus


Marshall,
Someone went to snopes.com and proved this to be a hoax on or about page 2. But most of us were having a lil fun trying to answer the test anyway or just giving different viewpoints on it. Just as you have already done. great post, thank you.

i found this quite easy...well, the parts that didn't contain units of measurement that i'm not at all familiar with (i'm looking at you, bushels)
granted, the grammar section shouldn't be hard for someone who teaches english

Dumbed down or have we entered a new age?

While many of these things are at the base root of how people lived at one time, and what the standard was at that time.

ITs a shame that we here in this day and age, have not only forgotten past knowledge and helpful info..

Lets look at it this way.. The knowledge of the past is manipulated by thsoe who know much.. They have no desire to share this knowledge with us.
It serves their greater good. Many will think...
Well most of these folks have no idea about how the internet works. So IM smarter than them..
The truth of the matter is.. Computers are one thing.. But knowing how to grow your own, and feed your family has come down to getting a job. getting in a car and go to the store.. Many of us know how to make a garden, and till the earth.. But we have lost soo much.

This is the heel that will take us down in the end..
This kind of knowledge is very important.. NOt only then but now!!!

Monsanto knows this.. Kroll knows this.. And they have dumbed us down to the point where we can no longer fend for ourselfs.

they have made us into slavs.. We must depend on the government to "save us".
when the whole time we are to busy with our ipods, with our TV and shows, that its just not ideal to know these things..

Sad.. Yet not so sad, when you think of it in the ways of the world..

I say this.. Yes I am a total Computer junkie.. And thats just what it is..
Herion in a cyber sense.. Im hooked!!! And Im just glad there are teachers out there that really teach, and say do not repeat what I say!

Become a leader youserlf.. And if people follow you.. Tell them, do not follow me.. Only learn from me and become your own leader..

Import info.. Yet only important to me, and not the next guy..

If the crap hits the fan.. I know how to cook a proper meal.. and yes IM a guy.. Gender is another false stero type..
Guys can be just as much as women, and women can be just as muh as men.. Are we really so diffrent bottom line.
other than physical status.. Some men are battle worthy.. Yet many women I know could kick the living crap out of me and all my manlyness.

Im man enough to admit we have some very strong women in our world.
Yet those women who focus on battle may not be that great when it comes to kitchen work... As a man I have been schooled in temps, and I know how to cook a steak without cutting it to check ifs its med. or well done..

We all have our stenghts, and our weakenss... Thats why there are so many people in this world.. WE are truely one.. And one that cant do something can befriend one that knows who to do something that the other doesnt.. Its the base root of money and trade..

We lost that way long ago.. and now we depend on debt to get a service that either we have no time to do, or are not able..
Trade in serive is my idea of a great start..
Money is money.. paper, gold, matreial wealth..
Yet the base root of these things is knowledge.. One service for another.

WE have lost our way.. and need to become leaders! all of us..

Yet there is and old saying.. In a tribe if you have to many cheifs and not enough indians ther are troubles. thats a lie..
All indians where leaders in their own skill of trade.
A shaman healed the sick.. Hunters bring food. scouts would find herds.
While non of them said Im better than you..
WE all have our place..and now a days those who say i do this, and IM better than you becasue I make more money.. its pure manipulation...
Truely a problem we all must face at some point.
IF not for us, but for our children.. As they will be the ones mislead, by our so called leaders... Just a thought..
I in no way proclaim I have the truth.. I only offer my veiw..
And my view is not 100% truth.. its only one side of the whole picture..

Take what you need. leave the rest that doesnt fit what you feel.
However I hope if not 1 line of my message gets threw, than my place as the leader of myself is fullfilled..
Dont follow me.. follow yourself!!!! I cant stress that point enough!

I am but a smiple man.. I am like you.. I dont ! and I am man enough to admit that fact

2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

Trick question? ...

You don't know how big the bushels are.

Honestly... yes, we are being "dumbed down", however it's not intentional. The thing is, our population has expanded greatly from the late 1800's. As our population has grown we have also had to deal with schools that have less and less money to go around while also forgetting what teaching really means. A lot of it comes down to what is necessary in daily life and how a child has grown up/is growing up. The majority of the population doesn't need to know geography or a majority of science. The professions that actually require people to retain information such as this are few and far between so we don't see the knowledge exhibited as much. If you think about it this way... would an office worker be better off learning about organization and productivity methods or would that same office worker be better off learning about particle physics? Since they use organizational skills much more often, it's going to be much more well known.

It's simply the evolution of knowledge. That which doesn't benefit us is left unlearned.

This is what it looks like to have a test that pulls together all that one has learned. In this age, students are taught something that will basically be identical to what will be on the test, and this is done only a week at a time for the most part. A student just has to learn enough to pass the test, and then re-learn it for finals. I mean I think most don't really learn what they are being taught. Tests should be more like the questions you posted imo.