One hundred years ago, when kids in Jersey City were taking this exam, children in other industrialized nations were struggling with similar ones. There, too, only a small elite passed and went on to high school.
Getting into high school is no big deal for any of our students. It's a question of spending eight or nine years in school and being promoted into ninth grade. But for youngsters who wanted to attend Jersey City High School in 1885, it was a different story. They had to pass a tough exam requiring detailed knowledge of geography, American history, grammar and math. We can get an idea of what they had to know from 40 exam questions that were reprinted in the Wall Street Journal (June 9, 1992). Here are a few of them:
Algebra: I. Define algebra, an algebraic expression, a polynomial. Make a literal trinomial. ... VI. Expand
each of the following expressions and give the theorem for each: [a+ 4]2, [a2 - 10]2 , [a+ 4] [a - 4].
Arithmetic: VIII. A requires 10 days and B 15 days to do a certain piece of work. How long will it take A
and B working together to do the work? IX. By selling goods at 121⁄2 % profit a man clears $800. What was
the cost of the goods, and for what were they sold?
Geography: I. What is the axis of the earth? What is the equator? What is the distance from the equator to
either pole in degrees, in miles? Why is it warmer at the equator than near the poles? 11. Name four principal
ranges of mountains in Asia, three in Europe and three in Africa.
Grammar: VII. Write the declension of [a] bird, [b] man, [ c] fly, [ d] fox, [ e] it. VIII. Write four lines of poetry, giving particular attention to the use of capitals, and to punctuation.
U.S. History: V. Name three events of 1777. Which was the most important and why? ... X. Name three
commanders of the Army of the Potomac. In what battle was "Stonewall" Jackson killed?
The point of the article is to show the inferiority of our schools to ones from the Good Old Days "despite a decade of educational reforms." Of course, as the Journal admits, most eighth graders in 1885 did not go to high school. Still, the exam raises some interesting issues.
For example, though we can't expect all eighth graders to achieve at levels that were reached by fewer than 10 percent in 1885, what about the top 10 percent (or 5 or 3 percent) of current eighth graders? Could they pass the Jersey City exam? Could the top 3 percent of kids leaving high school and entering -- or even graduating from -- college handle it? The answer is probably, no.
But would we even want them to? Ideas about how children learn and what they should know have changed a good deal since 1885. For example, grammar question VII asks students to "write the declension of bird, man," etc. Few people now would consider that important. You don't need to be able to decline a noun or pronoun to write a good paragraph. On the other hand, we'd also have to admit that, whatever you do need, most of our kids don't have it. The same goes for an understanding of history.
The Jersey City questions are heavy on facts and dates, and this approach may not lead to a real understanding of history. But do our students, many of whom cannot say what the Declaration of lndependence is or when the Civil War took place, have a real understanding of history?
One hundred years ago, when kids in Jersey City were taking this exam, children in other industrialized nations were struggling with similar exams. There, too, only a small elite passed and went to high school. After World War II, most industrialized nations decided that all students should go to, and graduate from, high school. This was a turning point. In the U.S., we felt that, to keep all our students in school, we had to radically lower our standards. Now, we have almost no standards. Other countries put out the word that students must be educated up to existing standards. Undoubtedly they had to lower their expectations, but achievement in Germany, the Netherlands and France is still close to what it was for the elite many years ago, while here, even the elite no longer does very well.
Though other countries, with their elitist and even aristocratic traditions, decided that all their students could achieve at high levels, we showed no such faith in American youngsters -- despite our democratic and egalitarian heritage. And the decisions turned out to be self-fulfilling prophecies: Both the U.S. and these other countries got what they expected from their students. But our kids are not dumber than children in other countries. The problem is not with them but with what we expect of them. It's high time we rethink it.