[setopt]

Exactly. How well would a 1912 student do on an 8th-grade test today for comparison?

They would lack any info about world wars, decolonization, computers, space race, internet, climate change, just to pick some topics taught today.

[oceanplexian]

That only strengthens the argument that they were better educated.

The people who built all those things and won two world wars were educated with this curriculum. They took us from horse and buggy to space travel, clearly they were doing something right with education.

[ttyprintk]

Not correct. This test would have impaired Linus Pauling, who was in eighth grade in 1912. He lacked two credits in American history and was never allowed to make them up. He won two Nobel prizes in chemistry.

More broadly, home schooling seems to be more effective in 19th century America. Edison likely never took any test and definitely never attended a college that depended on it. He was home-schooled because his hearing was so bad.

[consteval]

You're fixating on the highest achievers of the highest achievers. Most people couldn't even read or write. Education was much less of a priority then, because you didn't require an education to have a decent life for the time period. In fact, often getting an education was a huge disadvantage - because you weren't working earlier. Skills are acquired with hands then. The sooner you put them to use, the better for your career as a factory man.

[Finnucane]

Were they better educated? In some states, it would have still been against the law to teach evolution. When I was in grade school we had court-ordered desegregation of the schools; they had Jim Crow. Schools represented very different values in those days.