A Victorian Education

[SteveS.]

I have always wondered about Lizzie dropping out of high school in her junior year and what type of formal education she must have received at that point in her life. Well I came across this item while searching the internet. It's an 1895 8th grade final exam. It's a bit long of a post but I thought it was an interesting insight into the formal educations received in that time period.

Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that
they only had an 8th grade education Well, check this out. This is the
Eighth-Grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, 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 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, lay
and run
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation. Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation
7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you
understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
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 1050lbs. 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 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 around
which is 640 rods?
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, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography,
etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, sub vocals,
diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u! '.
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, 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 & 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.

[SteveS.]

Gives the saying "she/he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new
meaning, doesn't it?

[shakiboo]

Holy Cow!! I graduated and have a little over a year of college and doubt I'd pass that test!!! Thanks SteveS, gives a whole new light to the grand parents and great grand parents education!!!

[SteveS.]

I'm with you on this one I have a college education and probably couldnt answer 1/2 these questions.

[Kat]

Whew! It makes my eyes cross! Especially this late at night!
Thanks for the info!

[SteveS.]

I just found it interesting to get inside Lizzie's mind if she did plan and execute the murders. We can only speculate on her cognative abilities based on her own and others testimonies of her actions but seeing something like this 8th grade exam from 1895 does kind of shed some light on her reasoning abilities and her aptitude. At least it does for me. I think she deserves a little more credit for her education that she might have received and that she wasn't as uneducated as some might think. Her business sense in her life after the trial certainly proved this since she was still quite a wealthy woman upon her death even with all her extravagant spending.

[DWilly]

If you really want to get and idea of the difference in education between Lizzie's time and ours get a copy of a Mcguffey Reader. You can buy them on ebay. They have one for each grade level. If nothing else go on-line and go to the Gutenberg Project and you can read some of the Mcguffey Readers for free.

Once you get to the fourth, fifth and sixth grade levels you will see a huge difference in reading. The Mcguffey Reader was THE book children learned to read with back in Lizzie's era. You would be amazed at what they read and how many selections came from the Bible. Mcguffey Readers have a lot of selections that deal with developing character.

[Kat]

Here is a page on child-rearing from 1892.
Does anyone's grandparents or ggrandparents remember this advice?