I realize that education is only tangentially important to the major topics of music, instruments, and the evolution of traditional songs.  But I thought you might enjoy a notion of what bloody Kansas' educational standards were like when it had barely been settled, and that only sparsely, in the era of Stephen Foster, the Golden Spike, John Henry (roughly), the Reconstruction, Regency clothing styles,and "After the Ball is Over"; the year Thomas Huxley, Louis Pasteur and Engels died, and the expression "De Blues" was still a few years in the future, at least in published form.

It was the year Carl Orff , Anna Freud, the surrealist poet Paul Eluard,  Robert Graves and Castelnuovo were born; at that time Charles "Buddy" Bolden, the first  man to play the improvised New Orleans rhythms of "jass" founded his first band, and lead it with his sweet, incredibly clear cornet licks. In that year, too, sailing out of Gloucester, under the reach of Cape Ann, just north of Salem, Massachusetts, Capt. Caleb Hines, 50, a native of Pubnico, Nova Scotia, washed overboard from the chooner Reuben L. Richardson on the passage home from Newfoundland with a cargo of frozen herring. He had a wife and three sons. In the same period all this was going on, and much more, the

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

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS - 1895

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 50 cts.
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 m?
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 theRebellion.
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,
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 North America.
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.
---------------------------------------------------
Imagine a college student who went to public school trying to pass
this test, even if the few outdated questions were modernized.
----------------------------------
Gives the saying of an early 20th century person that "she/he
only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning!