Education in the 1910s

In 1900, the U.S. high school graduation rate was six percent. During the 1910s in Canada, the highest level of education the average person completed was grade six.

The majority of teachers were women. While this is probably still the case today, women were expected to quit working once they married. In some districts, teachers had to abide by curfews and rules about who they could and, more importantly, could not associate. There were other rules as well, including dress codes. School did not have custodial staffs, and teachers cleaned their classrooms according to a set schedule.

Eighth graders needed a minimum score of 80 percent in both math and grammar to pass the exit exam and move onto high school. The minimum for other subjects was 60 percent. Penmanship also was graded.

Education Requirements You’d Recognize

The number of hours a student must attend class to receive credit was established in 1905. The system is still in use today. Then it was called “seat time”.

A few years later, the first junior high school opened. It was intended to increase graduation rates by better preparing students for high school.

The forerunner of the standard test was established in 1918. It was created as a way to determine intelligence among U.S. Army soldiers enlisting for World War I.

Could You Pass the Test?

These are examples of questions eighth grade students were asked in 1910 in an Olympia, Washington, school district. Keep in mind, they needed to pass this exam to move on to high school.

Would you be able to pass?

• Name three different ways in which a noun may be used in the nominative case, and three ways in which a noun may be used in the objective case.
• Mark diacritically the vowels in the following: banana, admire, golden, ticket, lunch.
• Spell 30 words including emblematic, declension, pernicious, laudanum and soliloquy.
• What has made the names of each of the following historical? Alexander Hamilton, U.S. Grant, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cyrus W. Field, Clara Barton.
• How do you distinguish between the terms Puritans, Pilgrims, and Separatists?
• (a) State briefly the causes of the War of 1812. (b) Name two engagements. (c) Two prominent American Commanders.
• Name five important cities and five products of Canada.
• What and where are the following? Liverpool, Panama, Suez, Ural, Liberia, Quebec, Pikes Peak, Yosemite, Danube, San Diego.
• Divide 304,487 by 931.
• Find the square root of 95.6484.
• Find the sum of 5/9, 5/6, 3/4, 11/36.
• What number diminished by 33 1/3 percent of itself equals 38?
• Quote two stanzas of “America.”
• Name five American poets, and give a quotation from each.
  

• Trace a drop of blood from the time it enters the left ventricle, until it returns to its starting point, and name the different valves and principal arteries and veins through which it passes.
• Explain why health depends largely upon habit.
• Locate the thoracic duct.
• Give some good reasons why boys should not smoke cigarettes.
• What do you understand about the germ theory of disease?
• If you succeed in obtaining an eighth-grade diploma, do you expect to attend school next term? Where?

The stereotype is that our ancestors were not as intelligent as we are, but judging from these test questions, the opposite certainly seems true. They were highly educated and at a young age.

Eighth graders are, after all, only 13 and 14 years old.

Where to Purchase the WWI Trilogy

This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI Trilogy: Angel of Mercy, Those Left Behind and Adjustment Year.  The trilogy focuses on Hettie and her family as they navigate the challenges and heartbreak World War I brings.

Angel of Mercy:  A nurse reluctantly sacrifices her career for marriage. An impending war will change her, and her husband’s, life forever.  Available in eBook, paperback and hardcover.  Click here for a full list of retailers.

Those Left Behind:  The brewing winds of war will soon rip the family apart. Available in eBook, paperback and hardcover.  Click here for a full list of retailers.

Adjustment Year:  A war nurse returns home. Society expects her to carry on as if the Great War never happened. But how can she?  Available in eBook, paperback and hardcover.  Click here for a full list of retailers.