A MUST READ!!! esp. for parents, history buffs, former students, and other Amer

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Read the Underground History of American Education....John Taylor Gatto.  It is a must-read for every American.  It is expensive because he had to self-publish because the original publishers wanted him to tone down what he was saying and play nice with others.  So, if you can find it in a library, get it and read it.  I bought it at the homeschool convention last week because stuff like that is right up my alley.  The lady I bought it from said, "Oh, it isn't a book you can just sit down and read cover to cover... but it is interesting and you'll pick it up from time to time and eventually get through it."  Maybe not to her, but I'm having a hard time putting it down.  It makes me mad as all get out.  As soon as I'm done with it, I have a mental list of people I'm going to loan it to (ones I know will actually read it and get it back to me, ha ha.)  

[glenn kangiser]

Would you like to paraphrase some of the major points for us, Homey? hmm

[MountainDon]

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, Don.  I didn't have time to read a lot but I liked what I read.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Glenn, I thought you'd like it.  According to one of my friends, the whole book is available online somewhere.   It is basically a look at the subversive nature of public schools.

[glenn kangiser]

That is the link Don posted, Homey.  Thanks.

[MaineRhino]

The pdf is at    http://mhkeehn.tripod.com/ughoae.pdf

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Here's  a quote:
  "Work in classrooms isn't significant work; it fails to satisfy real needs pressing on the individual; it doesn't answer real questions experience raises in the young mind; it doesn't contribute to solving any problem encountered  in actual life.  The net effect of making all schoolwork external to individual longings, experiences, questions, an dproblems is to render the victim listless....Initiating, creating, doing, reflecting, freely associating, enjoying privacy-- there are precisely what the structures of schooling are set up to prevent, on one pretext or another."

[ScottA]

I see a huge difference in what and how the schools teach now compared to when I was a kid. When I was in school there where right or wrong answers to most questions. Now there seems to be alot of focus on problem solving and opinion. In other words they don't seem to care if you get the right answer so much as how you got the answer you give. I was helping my son with math one time and they had a question that was literaly not possible to answer. I told him to write that it was not solvable and he got it right. What kind of BS is that? Seems like a trick question. I feel sorry for these kids nowadays they will have a hard time when they grow up. 

[pagan]

If you want a real eye opener go to some antique places and look over the old grade school primers for reading and math and compare them to current text books.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

My girls (age 4 and 6) are reading books that were written in the early nineteenth century as graded readers.  My 6YO is in the second reader; I know some adult products of the public school system who couldn't read it, and some of the ones who could wouldn't be able to understand what they're reading. 

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks for the  PDF link Rhino.  I DLed it to read of line once in a while. 

[pagan]

Homegrown,

That's exactly my point. I have some old reading and arithmetic primers from 1901 that are for the third and fourth grade and my niece who was in high school at the time could not do most of the math and had trouble with a lot of the reading. She's currently attending college and, unfortunately, wants to become a teacher. Perhaps she'll wake up, I don't know.

[Windpower]

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, Kansas - 1895

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

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 do, lie, lay 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, 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. per bu, 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 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 inch?
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, and 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, subvocals, 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, super.
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 N.A.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give 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 inclination of the earth.

The top of the test states > "EXAMINATION GRADUATION QUESTIONS  OF SALINE COUNTY, KANSAS
April 13, 1895  J.W. Armstrong, County Superintendent.Examinations at Salina, New Cambria, Gypsum City, Assaria, Falun, Bavaria, and District No. 74 (in Glendale Twp.)"

According to the Smoky Valley Genealogy Society, Salina, Kansas "this test is the original eighth-grade final exam for 1895 from Salina, KS. An interesting note is the fact that county students taking this test were allowed to take the test in the 7th grade, and if they did not pass the test at that time, they were allowed to re-take it again in the 8th grade."







Can I use google ?

[pagan]

A farm at $15 per acre, I wish.

[MountainDon]

A farm at $15 per acre, I wish.

Using the CPI that would be $462.13 today. Still a bargain.

[pagan]

Don,

Yeah, $462.13 would be sweet.

[Sonoran]

I started reading the PDF.  I am really enjoying it so far, he has my attention.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Keep reading, Sonoran.  You'll be rewarded... it is long, but well worth the read, and I like his writing style as well.  I sat up until after midnight last night after getting kids to bed to read more.  With three young ones in the house my reading time is much more limited than it used to be, especially with working on the chicken house from 8PM-10PM last night. 

[pagan]

Found this and it would appear from her antics the infantilization of adults through forced public education is working.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbMVsXYHpW0

[ScottA]

Infantilization? Is that a real word? Does it mean something like "cry baby"? 
But seriously I've met a few like that.

[pagan]

in•fan'til•i•za'tion (-ĭ-zā'shən) n.

1. To reduce to an infantile state or condition: "It creates a crisis that infantilizes them—causes grown men to squabble like kids about trivial things" (New Yorker).

2. To treat or condescend to as if still a young child: "The Victorian physician infantilized his patient" (Judith Moore).