I am dumber than I thought.

My dad called last week and said he had a blog topic for me. He suggested I search for an 8th grade test from the 1800’s and see if I could pass it.

I think he was just trying to humble me.

I found a test here and the answers here. While the English section I could pass all right, and the math I could do if I knew how much a bushel was and what a mil levy and struck bushel and a whole host of other terms I haven’t a clue about. The history was pathetically beyond me and who on earth knows what orthography is anymore?! While numbers and English rules are fresh in my mind from teaching them on a daily basis, we don’t really have a clue.

An 8th grade education use to actually be enough to make it in most industries. Today, even if we changed the language to today’s English, I doubt many of us have learned that much by 8th grade – or even 12th.

Something to consider. My pride at watching my 4th grader pick apart sentences and name all 8 parts of speech in each was greatly diminished when I consider how poor I am educating my children in comparison to what they used to teach in schools.

It’s all about expectations, my friends. I’ve often said that my children obey only to my lowest expectation. If I expect them to disobey, you can bet they won’t disappoint. If I expect them to learn orthography, they will.

Now if I can just figure out exactly what orthography means.