Comments on: Are You Smarter Than A 1954 8th Grader?

By: Phbfoster

Phbfoster — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:08:00 +0000

Firstof all, most homeschooling parents are teaching cursive first the way we USED to. The public schools, however, ditched the “loopy devil writing” along with REAL phonics and gave us all the learning isabilities we have today. With your comment I am inclined to believe you are one of those public school graduates who willingly ate what they were spoon fed.

By: Louise

Louise — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:42:36 +0000

I became a teacher and started working in the current school systems within the last 10 years.

I was surprised and not too pleased to find that the kind of reports I had written in elementary school (grades 3 and 4) which I still have… would have been graded as A’s in the middle school and, yes, even in the high schools where I have worked. I was a third grader in the late 60′s…

For example, I have a report on the queens of England, with short written pieces and photos (which I had to trace and color because we did not have color copiers or printers). One page per queen. The written pieces are a paragraph each. The whole thing on construction paper and bound together at the edge with yarn. I did it in either 3rd or 4th grade. Any 8th grade teacher I’ve met recently would be delighted with it, and some of the high school teachers would have been ecstatic if some of their students did even half of this.

I know I was a top student, however, I also know that the “bottom” level students were not scraping by with that much less as far as reports etc. However, some of them weren’t passed on to the next grade… which is where IMO we have failed many times over. How have schools justified promoting a student to the next grade!!!??? when they do not know even 60% of the material? How do you build on a foundation with that many holes? No city building inspector (except one being bribed) would let an edifice continue to be built on so much crumbling material and empty air!

We *have* seriously reduced our expectations of students for many things. I have heard this justified because we have added things I never would have had to know, like how to use a computer, how to find information on the internet and how to use computer programs like word, powerpoint, and excel. Still, the added content does not equal the amount we have lost.

By: DS

DS — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:09:32 +0000

Public schools are clearly worse now. The difference is that years ago we learnt the entire curriculum, kids nowadays are taught to pass exams and their overall knowledge of the subject is pretty limited.

By: Pix Too Small

Pix Too Small — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:53:59 +0000

Pass the test??? Hell! I can’t even READ it…scan bigger next time!!! People that put small images online need SHOT.

By: MDH

MDH — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:08:56 +0000

I don’t know. I never learned how to read cursive, or as my homeschooling teachers/parents call it, “loopy devil writing”

By: Gui

Gui — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:30:31 +0000

LOL! I mean this has no pedagocic use. It is useful to memorize things but they should have a point. This is just pointless and exagerated. If the purpose is to enhance memory and improve logic, why not trying to memorize other more useful things related to grammar or sciences? And if the point is to enhance political awareness, what good is it to remember a bunch of names if you don’t know what their positions on politics are? Why not trying to fundment stuff and thinking instead of just remembering?
And let us not forget this is an A test. For what we know, the whole class could have failed it except for one or two children.

By: Kirby Stevens

Kirby Stevens — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:45:58 +0000

In the grade school years of life, memorizing basic facts is important. It provides a starting point for future in depth learning and analysis. Many people here at least remember the test and the nature of the information. This enables them to have a clue of where to start their search when they want to renew or expand their understanding. It is not enough to have easy access to information. How can you look it up online if you don’t have a clue what you should be looking for? How can you defend your constitutional rights if you have never learned what they are? How can you look them up if you aren’t even aware that they exist? This student may have forgotten the details after a few years, but now he has a memory of where to start his search if he wants to learn more. Don’t expect this age group to have critcal in depth understanding of the wisdom built into the constitution. That will come later. From what I have seen, some of the young people have never learned basic punctuation and capitalization. I think this must be a memorized skill.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:59:32 +0000

Gee Mitch, as a college professor I’m glad you homeschooled your kids. It sounds like they’re getting a really balanced, objective worldview from you.

I encounter several hundred college students every year and I teach political science. This information would be of use to them only inasmuch as it could be connected to an interest in politics, which almost none of them have. Mostly because when they think of politics they think of people like Glenn Beck. Or you. And they’d rather do just about anything on earth rather than listen to BS like you spewed here.

I can teach just about anyone. Except homeschooled kids. They are, without exception, brainwashed, emotionally stunted, and completely incapable of critically thinking. Their idea of making an argument is to repeat whatever survivalist bullshit their wingnut parents drilled into their heads, only louder.

By: Mitch Graves

Mitch Graves — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:14:55 +0000

Every critic of this test is bound to be an idiot liberal.
This is why our nation is being destroyed; a complete lack of understanding of what the law of the land (the constitution) says we are to be. The failure of the schools to teach children the truth has left them to the wolves of pseudo-intellectual babblers who lead them to believe anyone’s opinion is valid and we are a democracy! Idiots!
Delilah is exactly right, congress, BO and his ilk are getting away with murder because the general public is ignorant of the law and even more sadly ignorant of how the US became the most powerful, generous, and desired nation in the history of the world.
Now we slither toward Gomorrah and the socialist system with it’s 100% historical failure rate like brain dead sheep. Thanks NEA.
(Yep you bet I home schooled my kids; http://www.gravesjudo.com)

By: Delilah LaViano

Delilah LaViano — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:15:42 +0000

The above is how it was when my parents went to school, also, and should still be. When I was in school, we barely covered the Bill of Rights, and the signing of the Constitution.
This should still be taught, as shown above. Congress would not get away with nearly as much dishonesty and selfishness if we citizens actually knew what the Constitution says.

By: Mike Meyers

Mike Meyers — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:38:51 +0000

Yea im in college and this ***** pretty useless. Most people need to know this will learn it and the rest have too much going to even give two shits about who the justices are

**Edited by site owner**
No cussin’

By: Christ

Christ — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:15:32 +0000

Ah yes, because memorizing and then immediately forgetting a bunch of facts makes all these eighth graders that much better off. There is not a single question on this “test” that requires one to think, and as such this has minimal to no bearing on intelligence.
Congratulations on making yourself look like an idiot, Duane.

By: Aaron the Librarian

Aaron the Librarian — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:39:32 +0000

What use is memorizing a bunch of facts (which will go out of date someday) when the current information is easily accessible in an always-connected culture?

This is the same argument as “Why should Johnny & Mary have to learn long-hand math when they can use a calculator?”

The literacy of the future will be 1. understanding how to use tools to find data and/or information, and 2. understanding how to synthesize knowledge and wisdom from the data and information gathered.

Parents, get with it and get involved with your children’s education – now!

By: mrcommenter

mrcommenter — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:21:05 +0000

It would be nice if kids these days had to learn a little about politics, that way they would not be influenced as much by commercials

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:06:38 +0000

As a college student I wish their were more test like this. Yeah their are some things that are not needed to be know, like knowing all cabinet members names or justices names, but knowing what they did would be helpful. Also knowing what the constitution says and what actually is a right by the constitution and what isn’t and what each amendment gives us the right to.
It’s really disappointing to see my fellow students not even know is a difference between their rights and their privileges not to mention many’s lack of knowledge of how the government works and what checks and balances between powers are.
That’s not to say I am much better, only because my dad is a history teacher do I even have a slight understanding of what is contained in the constitution

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:40:59 +0000

Wow! So much hostility on all sides. Some simple facts from my perspective: in order to access that information from your iphone, you need to have some idea WHAT you are looking up; in order to understand the implications of various nominations, proposed bills, etc. you need to understand the framework of our government; in order to do that critical thinking, you need to have some facts about which to think. Without both facts and critical thinking skills, you have a person whose opinions are based solely on either repeating the last thing they heard, or being in opposition to it “just because”. I am choosing to homeschool my children, so that I can ensure that they are being held to high standards for both factual information (last year my 4th grader had to be able to name every state and it’s capital, and point to it on a map – something I learned right along with her, and I have an Ivy League education), and critical thinking skills (yesterday’s history lesson was on the unionization movement at the beginning of the 19th century, and how it compares to the need for/use of unions today). To all of you who commented that the parents must take a more active role – I completely agree – I guarantee that my kids will not enter adulthood ignorant or unable to think for themselves.

By: rightwingnutjob

rightwingnutjob — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:06:49 +0000

This information, and info like it is useless? Good grief people. If you think that knowing(even memorizing, yes) how our Government is SUPPOSED to work is useless, please, don’t involve yourself in politics. You’re a danger to all of us. You get what we have now. A government that completely blows through it’s constitutional limitations…

You scare me.

By: todd

todd — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:39:03 +0000

Wow a whole section on things you can google from your phone! Seems like a great way to educate. We could put it all in a little red book and have the kids carrie it at all times, oh wait that’s how the chinese taught when they were behind the rest of the world.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:49:38 +0000

When I went to school there was concrete beneath the monkey bars, trophies were for winners, and we memorized our times tables. Education in the US today is a joke.

By: Chet Stanger

Chet Stanger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:26:01 +0000

The only reform education needs is to get the government out of our schools, the calculators, the computers, get back to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, put prayer back in (whether you participate or not), and the Pledge of Allegiance.