What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895

No hand held calculators, no internet, no TV, no cell phones, no iPods, no electricity, no cars; so is all the new technology really helping????

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam:

Salina, KS, 1895


Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie', 'play', and 'run.'
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 65 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods? & lt; BR>10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour) (Do we even know what this is???)
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, and syllabication.
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, sub vocal, diphthong, cognate letters, and lingual.
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi-, dis-, mis-, pre-, semi-, post-, non-, inter-, mono-, and sup-.
8. 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.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of: Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it? This also shows you how poor our education system has become... and, NO! I don't have the answers, and I failed the 8th grade test!

politically correct

Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic political division in this country is not between liberals and conservatives but between those who believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those who do not.

-- Miss Manners (Judith Martin)

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name:	Tom
Birthday:	11/22/1960
Birthplace:	Victoria, Texas
Current Location:	Houston, Texas
Eye Color:	Green
Hair Color:	Light Brown
Height:	6'1"
Right Handed or Left Handed:	Left
Your Heritage:	Anglo
The Shoes You Wore Today:	black & brown boat shoes
Your Weakness:	Can't say "NO"
Your Fears:	Saying "NO"
Your Perfect Pizza:	All Meat - thin crust
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	earn a huge bonus
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	LOL
Thoughts First Waking Up:	Cully!
Your Best Physical Feature:	eyes
Your Bedtime:	11:30-midnight
Your Most Missed Memory:	coming out so late in life
Pepsi or Coke:	neither - can't have bubbles......
MacDonalds or Burger King:	BK
Single or Group Dates:	single
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	Republic of Tea
Chocolate or Vanilla:	chocolate
Cappuccino or Coffee:	Late'
Do you Smoke:	no
Do you Swear:	some
Do you Sing:	some
Do you Shower Daily:	YES
Have you Been in Love:	YES
Do you want to go to College:	already did
Do you want to get Married:	already did
Do you belive in yourself:	yes
Do you get Motion Sickness:	yes
Do you think you are Attractive:	yes
Are you a Health Freak:	no
Do you get along with your Parents:	the one still alive
Do you like Thunderstorms:	yes
Do you play an Instrument:	used to
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	yes
In the past month have you Smoked:	no
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	no
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	yes
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	yes
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:	no
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	no
In the past month have you been on Stage:	no
In the past month have you been Dumped:	yes
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	no
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	no
Ever been Drunk:	yes
Ever been called a Tease:	yes
Ever been Beaten up:	no
Ever Shoplifted:	yes
How do you want to Die:	quickly
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	in love
What country would you most like to Visit:	GB
In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color:	green
Favourite Hair Color:	blond
Short or Long Hair:	short
Height:	6'
Weight:	HWP
Best Clothing Style:	put together
Number of Drugs I have taken:	1
Number of CDs I own:	150
Number of Piercings:	0
Number of Tattoos:	0
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	a lot
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

Before you judge Britney, watch this......

Police Officer Steals Marijuana

Police Officer bakes brownies then calls 911 and says "I think we are dying".

Thought for the Day...

The 10 Rules of Life

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

A Heterosexual Questionnaire

1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?


2. When and how did you first decide you were heterosexual?


3. Is it possible that heterosexuality is a phase that you will grow out of?


4. Is it possible that you are heterosexual because you fear the same sex?


5. If you have never slept with someone of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn't prefer that? Is it possible you merely need a good gay experience?


6. To whom have you disclosed your heterosexuality? How did they react?


7. Heterosexuality isn't offensive as long as you leave others alone. Why, however, do so many heterosexuals try to seduce others into their orientation?


8. Most child molesters are heterosexual. Do you consider it safe to expose your children to heterosexuals? Heterosexual teachers particularly?


9. Why are heterosexuals so blatant, always making a spectacle of their heterosexuality? Why can't they just be who they are and not flaunt their sexuality by kissing in public, wearing wedding rings, etc.?


10. How can you have a truly satisfying relationship with someone of the opposite sex, given the obvious physical and emotional differences?


11. Heterosexual marriage has total societal support, yet over half of all heterosexuals who marry this year will divorce. Why are their so few successful heterosexual relationships?


12. Given the problems heterosexuals face, would you want your children to be heterosexual? would you consider aversion therapy to try to change them?

...from "Becoming Visible: a Reader in Gay and Lesbian History for High School and College Students," 1994, ed. by Kevin Jennings,
Alyson Publications, Inc., Los Angeles, CA 90078

© Copyright 1999 Montrose Counseling Center, Inc. and Texas Commission on
Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

You don't have to be gay to be gay on the inside.

You don't have to be gay to be gay on the inside. Anyone can do it! It just requires three things:
(1) consider that you might be different from the way people think you are;
(2) consider that you might be different from the way you think you are supposed to be;
(3) be willing to accept that other people may disapprove of your choices, and realize that their approval doesn't matter all that much anyway.

Get past those things, and you can start thinking about what you really need to be in order to be your true self.

A GUY'S QUICK TRIPTO WALMART

You are in the middle of some kind of project around the house. Mowing the lawn, putting a new fence in, painting the living room, or whatever. You are hot and sweaty. Covered in dirt or paint. You have your old work clothes on. You know the outfit, shorts with the hole in crotch, old t-shirt with a stain from who knows what and an old pair of tennis shoes.
Right in the middle of this great home improvement project you realize you need to run to Wal-Mart to get something required to complete the job. Depending on your age you might do the following:

In your 20's: Stop what you are doing. Shave, take a shower, blow dry your hair, brush your teeth, floss and put on clean clothes. Check yourself in the mirror and flex. Add a dab of your favorite cologne because you never know, you just might meet some hot chick while standing in the checkout lane. You went to school with the pretty girl running the register.

In your 30's: Stop what you are doing, put on clean shorts and shirt. Change shoes. You married the hot chick so no need for much else. Wash your hands and comb your hair. Check yourself in the mirror. Still got it. Add a shot of your favorite cologne to cover the smell. The cute girl running theregister is the kid sister to someone you went to school with.

In your 40's: Stop what you are doing. Put a sweatshirt that is long enough to cover the hole in the crotch of your shorts. Put on different shoes and a hat. Wash your hands. Your bottle of Brute Cologne is almost empty so you don't want to waste any of it on a trip to Wal-Mart. Check yourself in the mirror and do more sucking in than flexing. The spicy young thing running the register is your daughter's age and you feel weird thinking she is spicy.

In your 50's: Stop what you are doing. Put a hat on, wipe the dirt off your hands onto your shirt. Change shoes because you don't want to get dirt in your new sports car. Check yourself in the mirror and you swear not to wear that shirt anymore because it makes you look fat. The cutie running the register smiles when she sees you coming and you think you still have it. Then you remember the hat you have on is from your buddy's bait shop and it says, "I Got Worms".

In your 60's: Stop what you are doing. No need for a hat anymore. Hose the dog crap off your shoes. The mirror was shattered when you were in your 50's. You hope you have underwear on so nothing hangs out the hole in your pants. The girl running the register may be cute but you don't have your glasses on so you are not sure.

In your 70's: Stop what you are doing. Wait to go to Wal-Mart until they have your prescriptions ready too. Don't even notice the dog crap on your shoes. The young thing at the register smiles at you because you remind her of her grandfather.

In your 80's: Stop what you are doing. Start again. Then stop again. Now you remember that you needed to go to Wal-Mart. Go to Wal-Mart and wander around trying to think what it is you are looking for. Fart out loud and you think someone called out your name. The old lady that greeted you at the front door went to school with you.

You've got to love this little girl; she knows what she wants already. What a fine woman/wife she'll make!



A teacher asked her class, 'What do you want out of life?'

A little girl in the back row raised her hand and said, 'All I want out of life is four little animals.'

The teacher asked, 'Really, and what four little animals would that be sugar?'

The little girl said, 'A mink on my back, a jaguar in the garage, a tiger in the bed and of course, I'll need a jackass to pay for all of it.'

The teacher fainted.

Headline of the week: Pucker up for this

My mission as a blogger is to bring a little, er, zest to your life. The latest headline Headline Hall of Fame Headline I've found is this one from Australia's The Age:

Lemon douche is a cervical cancer risk


Don't be bitter. When life hands you lemons ... make a feminine hygiene product. To read the story that goes with it -- no peeling required -- click here.

Untamed tongues a-wagging on the web

Tired of only reading gossip about Paris and her pals and yearn to get the dirt on your friends and neighbors? The folks behind GossipReport.com certainly hope so. "We are the only site that focuses on gossip of the noncelebrity," said Ashley Murphy, the website's director of media relations, who also pointed out, "We don't create gossip, we just organize it." That's an important legal distinction to make, since Section 230 of the federal 1996 Communications Decency Act doesn't hold websites liable for what's posted by anonymous visitors on their online forums. But just because it's legal doesn't make it ethical. As James 3:5 says about our untamed tongues, "How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!" Imagine that blaze multiplied many times over on the Internet.

Coming to a Wal-Mart near you

Move over G.I. Joe; there's a new gang in town: the Tales of Glory Spirit Warrior Action Figures. The figurines of famous Bible men like Daniel, Sampson, and Goliath will begin appearing on Wal-Mart shelves next month and represent the first time the world's largest retailer has carried a full line of religious toys. Only about one-sixth of Wal-Mart's 3,300 stores will carry the toys and were selected based on the number of Bibles they sell. "They'll carry anything that sells," said David Croyle, president of FamilyLife. "This simply signals intelligent buying within Wal-Mart." If you're a parent, are these toys something your child would play with, and are they something you would buy for him or her?

America's beautiful people

This is what makes American people so Beautiful!!

Photo of the Week: First Drive-in Service Station

A far cry from the "Service Station of Tomorrow," provided by the Shell Oil Company, shows a service station built in St. Louis in 1905, the first drive-in station in the world. Its original equipment, a gravity tank on stilts, a faucet and a fifteen-foot length of gardenhose, was considered a radical improvement over the old method of retailing gasoline in 5 and 10 gallon cans at paint and hardware stores.

WWJD?

I was born and raised Catholic, but I can't help myself fom saying...

The Pope is insane.

Yesterday he reiterated something he's claimed for a long time - years, actually, due to the fact that he was quite high up in the church before he became the head honcho a couple of years ago.

The Catholic Church is the only true church. All other faiths are inferior.

Call me crazy, but I fail to see anything Christian about claiming supremacy above all others and alienating non-Catholic religions.

He stinks of Bush: Old, stubborn & misguided.

That is all.

Why it's OK to yawn at a meeting

We yawn when we're bored. We yawn when we're tired. We yawn to increase the supply of oxygen to our blood.

At least that's the conventional wisdom. But a pair of novel experiments by University of Albany psychologists suggests we may have yawning all wrong. Here's a summary of the work (complete paper here):

The first experiment demonstrates that different patterns of breathing influence susceptibility to contagious yawning. When participants were not directed how to breathe or were instructed to breathe orally (inhaling and exhaling through their mouth), the incidence of contagious yawning in response to seeing videotapes of people yawning was about 48 percent. When instructed to breathe nasally (inhaling and exhaling through their nose), no participants exhibited contagious yawning.

In a second experiment, applying temperature packs to the forehead also influenced the incidence contagious yawning. When participants held a warm pack (46 C) or a pack at room temperature to their forehead while watching people yawn, contagious yawning occurred 41 percent of the time. When participants held a cold pack (4 C) to their forehead, contagious yawning dropped to 9 percent.


These results clearly suggest that yawning regulates the temperature inside your head, and that perhaps we yawn to cool our brains. What we don't have here is any biochemical cause-and-effect, but this is an incredibly interesting theory all the same.

The findings, if valid, draw a few unexpected conclusions about yawning. First of all, rather than stimulating sleep, a good yawn should fend off falling asleep. And secondly, far from being an indicator of boredom, yawning would appear to be a mechanism for maintaining attention.

So be sure and remember this for your next staff meeting -- it's an excellent excuse, and possibly even a valid one!

As Randall Parker suggests, this finding may have also some practical results. If you feel the need to yawn, do so. If you're mind is lagging at work, hold a cold drink to your forehead. And if you're trying to maintain a productive workplace, keep the environment cold.

Video: Speeding No Small Matter in Australia

When you first read the slogan, SPEEDING: NO ONE THINKS BIG OF YOU, you might think it was a reminder that people think poorly of those who break the law. Think again. This new road-safety campaign, launched in Australia last week, is aimed a bit more below the belt—by suggesting those men who speed have small penises. In the television and cinema advertisements, young "hoons"—Aussie-speak for speeding or reckless drivers—are mocked by unimpressed women who wave their little fingers at the drivers in a parody of their manhood.

The Top Twelve Differences between Men and Women

1. NAMES
If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara. If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.

2. EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom will each throw in a $20, even though the total is only $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. When a group of women get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

3. MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need, if it's on sale.

4. BATHROOMS
A man has five items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Marriott. The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

5. ARGUMENTS
A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that...is the beginning of a new argument.

6.CATS
Women love cats. Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.

7. FUTURE
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

8. SUCCESS
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

9. MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change , and she does.

10. DRESSING UP
A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

11. NATURAL
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

12. OFFSPRING
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.