A Strikingly Different Education From Today's - Bullitt County's 1912 Eighth Grade Examination

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow.  Learn as if you were to live forever."  Mahatma Gandhi - a distillation of his teachings

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One of the themes of this blog is the importance of education & in particular what you do with that education to obtain a prosperous, happy, & fulfilling life.  South Carolina Senator Tim Scott calls "a quality education the closest thing to magic in America today.  It is the great equalizer.  It is the issue that allows for each & every family today living in poverty to believe that the American dream is alive, it is well, & healthy, & coming their way."

But the last three posts (really most of the education posts of the past several years) have focused on the decline in student learning & the failures of our education system that have led to shortages of all kinds of professions - e.g., doctors, engineers, pharmacists, air traffic controllers, policemen, & more

I know young people who do not aspire to the aforementioned professions & have worked to become plumbers, welders, & auto mechanics.  But they had to learn their skills somewhere like under the tutelage of a skilled tradesman.  

Unfortunately I also know young people who are going to work for the post office supposedly for the security of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the National Association Of Letter Carriers (NALC), or the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU).  Yet even here some USPS jobs require a mandatory 70% minimum score on the Virtual Entry Assessment, aka the Mail Carrier Test.  Much like applying for a job as a toll taker next to an E-ZPass lane this is not a worthwhile pursuit of a fulfilling career.  It is short sighted - a lot can go wrong.

Regardless of how successful any of these tradesmen or union employees may become, they probably stayed in school through the eighth grade & if they couldn't read & do math @ an 8th grade proficiency level they were @ a disadvantage going into the world whenever they finished school.  Those who were successful most likely worked to remove their eighth grade shortcomings & those who didn't are part of the occupational shortages the country is experiencing.

I know of an industrial accident in a metal finishing plating facility involving aluminum & hydrofluoric acid.  Turned out that the operator could not read.  Upon finding this out the superintendent of the facility said he did not want anyone in that plant who could not read or measure.  Click here to see the chemical reaction in a laboratory experiment & then just imagine the danger of the explosive hydrogen fumes shooting as high as the 35 foot ceiling in the plating room - all caused by someone who couldn't read.

Whether you have aspirations to be a neurosurgeon like Ben Carson (whose mother could not read but made sure her sons could), or a plumber or stone mason, or a letter carrier - it is to your benefit to be able to read & do math after leaving the eighth grade.

Now there is a connection between poorly educated people, obesity, & government dependence.  You can't expect poorly educated people to know or practice good nutrition. The National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases reports for adults that 30.7% are overweight, 42.4% have obesity, & 9.2% have severe obesity (Body Mass Index of 40+).  For children & adolescence ages 2 to 19 it is 16.1% overweight, 19.3% have obesity, & 6.1 % have severe obesity.

And don't think that just going to college is the universal panacea for what ails us,  Neither the high school graduate tradesmen or college graduate engineer or accountant have been taught American history in decades - it is extremely dangerous & very likely that a country can be easily changed whose people are unfamiliar with its history & heritage - in our case the founding principles of limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise.  Being poorly educated, fat, lazy, & having no will or interest to distinguish right from wrong pretty much described the people in the Roman Empire right before it fell.  

Andy Kessler reports in his March 17 WSJ column that "in 2024, only 22% of Chicago 11th-graders could read @ grade level.  Only 19% were proficient in math."  After decades of similar statistics, who can think this is working out well for these people or the country?  Businesses aren't hiring these people, they are investing in robots.

Contrast all of the foregoing with the following 1912 Eighth Grade Examination for Bullitt County Schools presented by the Bullitt County, Kentucky museum pictured above.  Students had to pass the exam to finish eighth grade & become eligible for high school.  There was no internet to make people smarter - I know it has made me a lot smarter.  And there was no OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini to use to cheat their way through school like is happening more & more today in a new era that takes grade inflation to another level.

1912 Eighth Grade Examination for Bullitt County Schools

This copy of the Eighth Grade Exam for Bullitt County Schools in 1912 was donated to the museum. We thought you might like to see what the test looked like more than a hundred years ago. Obviously it tested some things that were more relevant at that time than now, and it should not be used to compare student knowledge then and now.

Note that there are several typesetting mistakes on the test including a mistake in the spelling list. The word "eneeavor" should be "endeavor." This version of the exam was probably a master version given out to the schools (note that the spelling words wouldn’t be written on a test.) The museum has been told that the exam was handed out in a scroll form (that is why the paper is long.) The typos would have been corrected simply by contacting the teachers and telling them to mark their copies accordingly, much like would be done today. And there might not be quite as many typos as you think; "Serbia" for example was indeed spelled "Servia" back then.

Bullitt County Schools were mostly one-room schools in those days, scattered around the rural county. Students came together at the county courthouse once or twice a year to take this "Common Exam." It was apparently a big deal. The local newspaper urged students to do well, even urging seventh graders that it was not too early to start preparing. Some scholarships were provided to those who passed to go on to high school, which was also a big deal back then. In those days, high school was sometimes another county away and a rare thing for many farm children to be able to otherwise attend.

And remember to smile a little while reading this exam. It has been great fun, as well as a challenge, to think about the questions, and to come up with answers for 1912 and for today. For example, it has been interesting to see disagreements on even the basics, such as what is a "cord," much less the actual answer to the question, or the much more controversial questions about government and about "who discovered...". Smile. We are all learning from this test.

Our staff has put together possible answers on another page for your amusement.

Replacing The LSAT With The GRE May Be Just The Needed "Trick"

The last post linked the shortages of qualified people in the labor force, both now & in the future, to the high percentage of people who can not read @ a basic level by the 8th grade. The post went into detail regarding shortages of doctors, policemen, male public school teachers, engineers, & more that affect our lives negatively.

Conspicuous by its absence in the post was a discussion of lawyers.  A charter subscriber to this blog picked this up & wrote "I know a young fellow striving for a law degree, does well in class work, & teachers think he is very capable.  His next step is passing the LSATs & money.  But most of the questions on the LSATs do not apply to the law, so it comes to comprehension, ability to understand, knowledge, awareness, perception, discernment, & interpretation so if there is a trick he can follow I will relay the information to him.  And yes he is working."

The "trick" that our subscriber is looking for may lie in the test that the "young fellow" is studying for.  Yes, the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) is used by law schools to help evaluate applicants, but starting in 2016 some law schools started to accept GRE (Graduate Record Exam) scores so that today about half the law schools including Columbia, Harvard, & Georgetown on down accept scores from both tests.

My sister-in-law, a lawyer, told me that "the LSATs do not apply to the law" as our subscriber writes, but are geared to determine how the applicant thinks.  The LSAT is taken with pencils & paper & consists of five, 35-minute sections measuring analytical & logical reasoning & reading comprehension.   The GRE could be a better fit for a non-traditional law school candidate with an impressive application including a high GPA & extra curricular activities.  Such a candidate might be more comfortable because the GRE is taken by computer figuring out definitive answers to questions involving algebra, geometry, trigonometry, & calculus in addition to reading comprehension, vocabulary, & writing.  Something like the quizzes I present from time to time.  Both tests are difficult.

Although schools started to say in 2016 they were flexible in accepting either test in order to attract students from a wider variety of backgrounds, particularly in STEM fields, it is also true that there had been a falloff in applicants & matriculants from 2010 each year to 2015.  You would not be far off to think accepting the GRE was an attempt to stop this downward trend - which did stop in 2016 although it cannot be concluded that accepting the GRE was the reason.  See graphic below - source of the next two graphics is the Law Professor Blogs Network (Jerry Organ).

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With the above downward trend in overall applications came a corresponding downward trend from 2010 to 2015 of the best & brightest law school students defined as those with LSAT scores of 165+ (above 90th percentile) that also did not start to turn around until 2016.  Such applicants would be competitive @ virtually any law school in the country.  Unfortunately, the number of students with scores from 150 to 159 continued the downward trend in 2016 while those @ the bottom of the scale (140 to 149) had a slight increase.  LSAT scores range from 120 to 180.  See graphic below for the trend of those students with LSATs of 165+.

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Law School enrollment continued to increase after 2016 but has fallen the past two years.  Acceptance of the GRE gets some of the credit for the small increase in enrollment after 2016.  See graphic below - source LawHub.

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So lawyers join the many other professions highlighted on this blog that have declined in number the past fifteen years.  Fairly or not, the reputation of lawyers is low (like that of Congress who is made up of lawyers) so to moan about a shortage of lawyers will not bring much sympathy.  Still, a good lawyer can be very valuable when closing on a house, getting a divorce, helping with taxes on a financial plan, or teaching constitutional law correctly.

And the compensation is still very good for those with the 165+ LSAT scores who graduate from a top law school.  See graphic below.

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So the "trick" our subscriber may be looking for concerning his friend's problem with the LSATs may be to find a law school that will accept the GRE results.  I hope it works for them.

I present below a sample question from both the LSAT & the GRE for the "young fellow" & the entire readership to consider.  Send me your comments on the LSAT & the solution to the GRE question.  I will post appropriate comments from the LSAT question & all correct answers to the GRE question or alternatively send the correct answer to any one who requests it.

Just think - being able to answer questions like the following in the real world is what making $200,000 per year is all about for someone in their 20s with a first class law degree.

Sample LSAT Question

In trying to reduce the amount of fat in their diet, on average people have decreased their consumption of red meat by one-half in the last two decades.  However, on average those who have reduced their consumption of red meat actually consume substantially more fat than those who have not.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy described above?

A. Many more people have reduced their consumption of red meat over the last two decades than have not.

B. Higher prices over the last two decades have done as much to decrease the consumption of red meat as health concerns have.

C. People who reduce their consumption of red meat tend to consume as much of other foods that are high in fat as do those who have not reduced their consumption of red meat.

D. People who reduce their consumption of red meat tend to replace it with cheese and baked goods, which are richer in fat than red meat.

E. Studies have shown that red meat contains slightly less fat than previously thought.

Sample GRE Question

A developer has land that has x feet of lake frontage. The land is to be subdivided into lots, each of which is to have either 80 feet or 100 feet of lake frontage. If 1⁄9 of the lots are to have 80 feet of frontage each and the remaining 40 lots are to have 100 feet of frontage each, what is the value of x?

Eighth Grade Reading Failure Carries Over Into Adulthood

This post links the 22% to 31% of 8th graders from 1992 to 2022 who could not read @ a basic level with the shortages of qualified people we have today - from doctors to policemen to air traffic controllers.  The post shows how these 8th graders in 1992 are now 46 years old & do not contribute meaningfully to society - & what's worse, their lives are not fulfilling.  Just like in the 8th grade reading test the same percentage of people fail an adult survey entitled Do Adults Have The Skills They Need To Thrive In A Changing World? while the gap between the highest & lowest performing adults widened in the last ten years as technology & automation left more poorly prepared people behind.

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Even before the enactment of ObamaCare there was a looming shortage of doctors forecast in America.   The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a primary care shortage within the next decade of up to 55,000 doctors & up to 124,000 physicians derived from an estimated 268,000 retirements & possibly only 15,000 new doctors coming in each year.  With the cuts in doctors' fees in many hospitals & medical insurance programs along with the persistent threat of universal healthcare's price controls & rationing in the proposed Medicare For All entitlement it is no wonder that people would choose to become a warehouse manager rather than a brain surgeon.

More recently the shortage extended to pharmacists, accountants, & policemen.  

According to the Pharmacy College Application Service the number of pharmacy-school applicants dropped by more than a third from its peak a decade ago resulting in pharmacies reducing hours or even closing stores on weekends because of staff shortages.

The shortage of accountants is forcing small & mid sized firms to hire overseas accountants even when the U.S. income tax filing season gets in full swing - which we are just about in now.  Imagine what this says - foreigners in Bengaluru, India or South Africa know how to complete an American income tax return but Americans don't.

The accounting profession was hurt starting with a 9% decline in U.S. students who received a bachelor's degree in accounting (57,500 degrees in 2012 to 52,500 degrees in 2019) with the downward trend continuing.  As I expected to find in researching this post, fewer people are sitting for the four part CPA examination.  Evidently working the fields in the hot Arizona sun is not the only job Americans won't or can't do.

You don't have to check further than your local news to learn of the shortage of policemen.  For instance Chicago is losing two officers for each one it graduates from the police academy & San Jose has seen a two thirds drop in applications to the police force over recent years.  Twenty years ago the NYPD had 20 applicants for every open position - today there is a 1,700 policeman shortage resulting from the defunding of police movement & a general demoralizing mindset of putting the criminal as a first priority & the victim last or not @ all.  This type of recruitment problem & shortage extends to the border patrol, military, & the national police force - the FBI.

And just within the last few months the shortage of male public school teachers has taken its place on center stage as principals struggle to find qualified applicants with teaching credentials.  The share of the number of male public school teachers has dropped from a third to under a quarter in the last 50 years thereby depriving many young boys of a male figure of authority @ home & in school.

In this regard on January 29 the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) issued The Nation's Report Card 2025 which highlighted continuing declines in reading scores for both 4th & 8th graders.  Math scores showed a slight decline for 8th graders & a slight uptick for 4th graders.

Tennessee is trying to improve this situation by passing a law that students be held back in third grade if they don't meet certain benchmarks - apparently acknowledging my premise for @ least the last two decades: "How do you get to the 9th grade if you are only reading @ a third grade level?"

And now the one I have dreaded the most - the test scores of the 40,000 candidates who took the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam declined about 10% during the pandemic meaning these people don't qualify to sit for the Professional Engineering exam which must be passed in order to become a licensed professional engineer.  The result is a shortage of engineers & a lower level of competency among those who passed (with the lower scores).  Civil structural engineers, who failed to answer questions about the use of trusses in construction of bridges & roadways, had the highest first attempt fail rate of all the disciplines @ 35% - the other major engineering disciplines (chemical, electrical, & mechanical) ranged between 25% to 30% first attempt fail rate.

And of course the mid air collision on January 29 highlighted once again that there is a significant shortage of air traffic controllers in the U.S.  The FAA attributes the cause of the shortage to a rigorous training process, mandatory retirement age (set by Congress in 1972 @ 56 years old), & difficulty in attracting qualified candidates under 31 years old.  At the FAA  Academy in Oklahoma City the attrition rate can reach 40 to 50%.

To summarize the miserable trend portrayed above, our education system has produced a society that has declined in medical safety & service (shortage of doctors & pharmacists) as well as physical safety (shortage of policemen, border patrol agents, military recruits, & air traffic controllers).  The lack of qualified accountants & CPAs will result in erroneous business reports that will swallow up investments & pension assets - e.g., Macy's experienced a $151 million of false bookkeeping entries & coverup by a lone employee that went undetected by its auditor KPMG for over three years thereby raising questions about the competency of the auditors as investors' losses mounted.  Businesses will not be able to expand @ their desired rate because there are not enough qualified engineers to design, engineer, construct, & support such expansions & increases in productivity - the critical factor for economic growth & increasing our standard of living & prosperity.

For an explanation of how this happened please refer to the following graphic which was made from data from The Nation's Report Card 2025 mentioned above.  The blue line shows the % of 8th graders who could read @ the basic or above level from 1992 to 2022.  The red line shows that the share of 8th graders reading @ the basic or better level has dropped back to the same share as 1994 & only 1 percentage point higher than it was in 1992.  

The NAEP basic level denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge & skills that are fundamental for performance @ the NAEP proficient level (i.e., being able to read so that you can function in the world).  In 2022, the percentage of 8th grade public school students performing at or above the NAEP Proficient level in reading was 29 percent nationally, with 10 states having a lower percentage of proficient 8th grade readers than the national level: AK & KS - both @ 26%; DE @ 24%; TX @ 23%; MS, AL, WV, & DC - all @ 22%; OK @ 21%; & NM @ 18%. 

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The reading statistics for 8th graders are important because people who are not good readers by the 8th grade most likely never will be - being disinclined to read as an adult thereby limiting their life's potential.   

But most importantly, the graphic underlies the connection between people who were once 8th graders & now are adults - someone in the 8th grade in 1992 is now 46 years old.  The area above the blue line curve means that the 22% to 31% of the 8th graders from 1992 to 2022 who could not read above a basic level are now adults 46 to 18 years old who probably still don't read @ a basic level.  This adds up to tens of millions of people.

I highlight this connection between the results for 8th graders, who were poor readers when they were 13, & adults who struggle to make a living.  On December 10 the OECD released the results of their latest study entitled Survey of Adult Skills 2023: Do Adults Have The Skills They Need To Thrive In A Changing World?.  Thirty-one countries participated.  Click here to see the results for the United States.  The results for the other thirty countries are on the first link.

The survey is "a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). (It) provides a comprehensive overview of adults' literacy, numeracy, and adaptive problem solving skills – skills that are fundamental for personal, economic, and societal development."

In summary the United States is below the OECD average in literacy, numeracy, & adaptive problem solving with the biggest difference being in numeracy - see Figure 1 of the United States report.

The survey found that 28% of adults scored @ Level 1 or below, meaning they have low literacy proficiency - right in line with the 22% to 31% of 8th graders (now adults taking the OECD survey) who couldn't read @ a basic level between 1992 & 2022.  

The survey for the U.S. report states that  "at Level 1, they can understand short texts and organized lists when information is clearly indicated, find specific information and identify relevant links. Those below Level 1 can at most understand short, simple sentences.  At the other end of the spectrum, 13% of adults (OECD average: 12%) scored at Levels 4 or 5 in literacy and are high performers. These adults can comprehend and evaluate long, dense texts across several pages, grasp complex or hidden meanings, and use prior knowledge to understand texts and complete tasks." 

The survey found "In the United States, average results in 2022-23 went down compared to 2012/15 in literacy and numeracy.  In both literacy and numeracy, the share of low-performing adults (scoring at Level 1 or below) increased.  Meanwhile, the share of high-performing adults (scoring at Levels 4 or 5) remained stable (Figure 4 of the U.S. report).  In both domains, therefore, trends were more negative at the lower end of the distribution, and the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing adults widened between 2012/15 and 2022-23."

The OECD adult study & others have shown that adults who were poor readers in the 8th grade experienced more bouts of unemployment, overall low or poor wages, frequent enrollment in the food stamps program, higher disability payments, higher rates of single parenthood & child poverty, elevated mortality & a low level of individual well-being & civic engagement.  These adults are generally thought of as less trustworthy, less likely to vote, & more likely to not be in excellent health. 

About a quarter of the U.S. population is enrolled in Medicaid & about half that many are on food stamps.  Enrollees in both of these welfare programs are likely to be poor readers.

Now if you graduated from high school & can't read, & are smart enough to know that you can't read, teach yourself or find someone who can teach you.

If you graduated from high school & can't read & don't do anything about it your life will most likely be one of difficulty, hardship, & more than your fair share of unhappiness - or even worse.

In short,  anyone who can't read will never develop their full human potential.  They will never realize that they make out of life what they strive for & therefore have not only cheated themselves out of an enhanced future but society out of a contributing member capable of filling the types of jobs described herein whose shortages plague the country more & more every day.