Author Topic: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear  (Read 1985 times)

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Offline Libertas

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I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« on: July 30, 2013, 07:26:59 AM »
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-29/are-you-smarter-8th-grader-1912

Comments are pretty good.  They challenged folks back then...and it did a good job of seperating the wheat from the chaff, many kids never went past the 8th grade back then, some ended even earlier and just went back home to work the farm full time.  My grandmother taught k-12 in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Minnesota, she was tough, she tutored me in math between 3rd & 4th grade one summer, wouldn't let me out until I could pass her daily tests.  Worked though...and here I am a bean-counter!  LOL!

And if that isn't hard enough, how about these entrance exams from Harvard c.1869!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/education/harvardexam.pdf

And compare that demand to what was asked of the assclown sitting in the White House!

http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaEducation.htm
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2013, 08:28:16 AM »
My grand dad took my dad out of school after 6th grade.
Apparently, he was a foreman on a strip job over the hill from the farm.

They moved the coal by cable car down the hill to the river where it was barged (long ways down there)
My dad ran the teams of horses that made the cable cars go up and down.

This would have been arond 1921 or so.
He always valued education and emphasized it for me.
He wanted me to have it better than him.

As far as the 8th grade test, I saw that elsewhere the other day and I would have to thing of some of the answers.
But, I am 40+ years removed from that information.

I think I could have done ok on it when I was in 8th grade

Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2013, 10:22:53 AM »
The Progressives began infecting education in the late 1800's but even so they weren't really effective until the 1960's.  Over the years I've picked up old textbooks from the 30's to the 50's for our homeschooling family. Some of those books are now family favorites. I'm sure liberals would take issue with the un-PC approach to some things. But teaching and learning is so much easier when as a parent you don't have to separate the wheat from the chaf and can just get to it. I have a 4th grade English text from the 40's that I would say most college students couldn't do. It contains many complicated sentences to diagram. And as much as I love grammar and teach it every year, I had to look up some of the answers.

My husband's southern grandfather didn't make it to 8th grade.  No doubt he was more educated than many college students of today. He worked everyday except Sundays and holidays and started several businesses. He died in his 80's, middle-class, reading the Wall Street Journal everyday with enough investments for him and his wife to live on in retirement. (He also didn't need to be educated on diversity.  He hired many blacks in his business and treated like them any other employee.)

I'm sure we all have relatives who spent less time in school and knew more than the kids of today. 
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Offline Glock32

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2013, 10:30:37 AM »
Have you seen some of the things people wrote back then? I mean people with no more than 8th grade educations. Perfect penmanship, and they used far more complex language.

Now everything is about brevity and monosyllabic words wherever possible. When I was in college the received wisdom of English departments was that you should emphasize the active, present tense voice. I couldn't help but see this as a bit of dumbing down, sort of like when newspapers deliberately have their writers target a 6th grade reading level. I still prefer a passive voice for formal/technical writing because it creates a detachment between the writer and the subject matter. It would seem egotistical otherwise.

Anyhow, I do marvel at the fluency of past generations. Any educated person back then also probably knew a decent amount of Latin and Greek, as the classical education was still important. I think some of our Idiocracy problems are due to nothing more complicated than the fact that modern technology and gadgetry give people the option for constant and rapidly changing titillation. There's not as much useful boredom. One of my favorite summer jobs was in landscaping. For hours I would ride on a mower with nothing else to do but listen to headphones and think. We don't cultivate abstract thinking in people anymore (such is anathema to statists).
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Offline trapeze

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2013, 10:34:19 AM »
Try this. I got through it with two mistakes which were due entirely to the timed element...I couldn't hit the correct answer fast enough.
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Offline trapeze

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2013, 10:45:03 AM »
I think some of our Idiocracy problems are due to nothing more complicated than the fact that modern technology and gadgetry give people the option for constant and rapidly changing titillation.

I prefer to believe that modern life allows stupid people to reproduce instead of being eliminated from the gene pool.

Think about bike helmets.

When most of us were children there were no such things. Life did not come with padding at all. We were forced to consider the potential outcome of our actions and if we chose incorrectly we might have been killed. Bike helmets have prevented the deaths of countless idiots who then grow up to become government dependents and, unfortunately, parents.

Lots and lots of modern things accomplish the same outcome: More stupid people live who should have died. And when stupid people live they vote. And when they vote we get stupid community organizers for president. And they also re-elect stupid senators and congressmen. Sheila Jackson Lee could never be elected, let alone re-elected, in a less stupid world. That she is a multi-term congresswoman is all anyone needs to know about the intelligence of the electorate. Where did these stupid people come from? A lot of them didn't die from stupid decisions made throughout their lives...decisions that would have killed people in an earlier time.

On the other hand...modern life has introduced a few things which do actually end up killing off lots of stupid people. Recreational drugs come immediately to mind.
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Offline Libertas

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2013, 11:22:05 AM »
Have you seen some of the things people wrote back then? I mean people with no more than 8th grade educations. Perfect penmanship, and they used far more complex language.

Now everything is about brevity and monosyllabic words wherever possible. When I was in college the received wisdom of English departments was that you should emphasize the active, present tense voice. I couldn't help but see this as a bit of dumbing down, sort of like when newspapers deliberately have their writers target a 6th grade reading level. I still prefer a passive voice for formal/technical writing because it creates a detachment between the writer and the subject matter. It would seem egotistical otherwise.

Anyhow, I do marvel at the fluency of past generations. Any educated person back then also probably knew a decent amount of Latin and Greek, as the classical education was still important. I think some of our Idiocracy problems are due to nothing more complicated than the fact that modern technology and gadgetry give people the option for constant and rapidly changing titillation. There's not as much useful boredom. One of my favorite summer jobs was in landscaping. For hours I would ride on a mower with nothing else to do but listen to headphones and think. We don't cultivate abstract thinking in people anymore (such is anathema to statists).

I also find the former intellectually lazy, and the latter is witnessed by our generally poor math & science scores compared to other nations.
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2013, 02:05:53 PM »
That's the funniest thing I've read all day Trap. When we were kids we used to goad and taunt each other (sorta like that stupid jackass show on the boob-toob but not as brain-dead). We used to eat bugs. We used to eat dirt!

Most kids never got sick or if they did they quickly recovered. Even as kids when we got hurt (and we did get hurt!) we would tell each other to "walk it off". Little tolerance for whiners. I tried to give my kids the same sort of experience. I guess I didn't do too good but at least they had a chance. I see the protectiveness and the coddling and have to shake my head.

"The unexamined life is not worth living"

Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2013, 02:51:23 PM »
That's the funniest thing I've read all day Trap. When we were kids we used to goad and taunt each other (sorta like that stupid jackass show on the boob-toob but not as brain-dead). We used to eat bugs. We used to eat dirt!

Most kids never got sick or if they did they quickly recovered. Even as kids when we got hurt (and we did get hurt!) we would tell each other to "walk it off". Little tolerance for whiners. I tried to give my kids the same sort of experience. I guess I didn't do too good but at least they had a chance. I see the protectiveness and the coddling and have to shake my head.

"The unexamined life is not worth living"

I remember when my oldest was toddler I went to the mall with some other moms and their kids. One of the other kids fell and the mother swooped in and coddled her daughter who was crying. The child didn't have a scratch on her.  I remember thinking  "gee, I must seem heartless cuz when my daughter falls I pretty much saying ok you're not bleeding, you're fine , go play" and I give her a cursory hug if that.  ::whatgives::

One of my daughters likes to say "suck it up, we all got problems". 

It's not that we're an unsympathetic bunch but more practical.  Save the tears for real pain and heartache.

(I'll add that my kids like to tease me that I'm really a marshmallow. I'm just not a coddler.)
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Online Pandora

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2013, 04:23:52 PM »
Both of my folks, after assuring themselves we were basically okay after a fall or incident, would teasingly ask if we broke the ____________ -- whatever we smashed into or fell on, even as we were bawling, if we were.  We carried this on to the grandkids/nieces/nephews.

After the first time when the kid looks at you like you're a crazy person, it's a signal to the kid that he's okay.  It wasn't only reassuring, it always made us all giggle.
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

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Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2013, 04:57:53 PM »
Both of my folks, after assuring themselves we were basically okay after a fall or incident, would teasingly ask if we broke the ____________ -- whatever we smashed into or fell on, even as we were bawling, if we were.  We carried this on to the grandkids/nieces/nephews.

After the first time when the kid looks at you like you're a crazy person, it's a signal to the kid that he's okay.  It wasn't only reassuring, it always made us all giggle.

Yep  ;)

Grampa used to make a show of going over to the swing or treehouse, running his finger along it, and announcing, "Yessir, I think you dented it - right here!"  It was always done with the right amount of compassion and good humor.


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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2013, 04:59:41 PM »
Both of my folks, after assuring themselves we were basically okay after a fall or incident, would teasingly ask if we broke the ____________ -- whatever we smashed into or fell on, even as we were bawling, if we were.  We carried this on to the grandkids/nieces/nephews.

After the first time when the kid looks at you like you're a crazy person, it's a signal to the kid that he's okay.  It wasn't only reassuring, it always made us all giggle.

Yep  ;)

Grampa used to make a show of going over to the swing or treehouse, running his finger along it, and announcing, "Yessir, I think you dented it - right here!"  It was always done with the right amount of compassion and good humor.

Exactly!
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

"Let us assume for the moment everything you say about me is true. That just makes your problem bigger, doesn't it?"

Online benb61

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2013, 05:52:28 PM »
Both of my folks, after assuring themselves we were basically okay after a fall or incident, would teasingly ask if we broke the ____________ -- whatever we smashed into or fell on, even as we were bawling, if we were.  We carried this on to the grandkids/nieces/nephews.

After the first time when the kid looks at you like you're a crazy person, it's a signal to the kid that he's okay.  It wasn't only reassuring, it always made us all giggle.

Yep  ;)

Grampa used to make a show of going over to the swing or treehouse, running his finger along it, and announcing, "Yessir, I think you dented it - right here!"  It was always done with the right amount of compassion and good humor.

Exactly!

My wife thinks I'm heartless because I don't let my sons crying/whining about injury get me all flustered.  She has coddled him to the point that even now at age 17 when he stubs his toe (because of his own inattentiveness) she coddles him and I say "quit your crying, if you are really hurt we will go see the doctor".  Once the doctors office is mentioned he says no but of course I'm the ass.  If I try to relate personal stories of my own injuries and how I dealt with the pain/blood/whatever she goes all protective and says " Well you must be superman" or some such shyte.  I remember as a kid falling 30 feet out of a tree and having all my friends stand around me and laugh so hard that I eventually laughed myself.  I don't think that I ever told my mom about that.  I just "shrugged it off", granted I was rather sore for a couple of weeks, but I never cried to my mom, after all she would have scolded me for climbing that dumb tree in the first place.  Made me a stronger person.
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Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #13 on: July 30, 2013, 10:17:13 PM »
My brother was at the doctor's when he was around 30 and the doc asked when he broke his collar bone.  He didn't know.  Called mom and she said it must have been that time he fell out of the tree when he was 10!  lol

My kids come to me with a complaint and unless it obviously an emergency situation I tell them let me look at it in the morning
and then I'll decide what to do.  More often than not they forget to ever tell me the next day.
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Offline Libertas

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Re: I always get a kick out of these glimpses into yesteryear
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2013, 07:34:16 AM »
"...walk it off...", ..."you're fine, nothing broken/no bleeding...", "...do you still have 10 fingers? (etc)", "...I'll give you something to cry about..."

"...let me look at it...", "...you're OK" (after bandaid or topical applied)

Can you guess which parent was which?   ;D
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.