2-27-09 -- An 8th Grade Final Exam

What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895... Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, 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 'lie,''play,' 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 hour 15 minutes)
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 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 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 the cost of 6,720 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 metre?
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 of 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 the Rebellion.
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) [Do we even know what this is??]
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.' (HUH?)
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, sup.
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 Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the 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 the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!

Author- Unknown

2-23-09 - Generation Y

Hmm, I've always wondered this myself. Now I know.

*The Silent generation, people born before 1946.

*The Baby Boomers, people born between 1946 and 1963.

*Generation X, people born between 1964 and 1979.

*Generation Y, people born between 1980 and 1995.

Why do we call the last one generation Y? I did not know, but a caricaturist explains it eloquently below...Learned something new!

Author Unknown

2-20-09 - Where are all the Homies?

Now let me begin by saying that when I refer to a "Homie" I am NOT using a racial slur. I have come to learn that today's teen uses the word, "Homie," short for "homeboy/girl" as a replacement for the word, "friend." The members of the discipline office Frequent Flyer Club know this word drives me crazy, so they use it in my presence every chance they get to hear me reply, "HOMIES? THERE ARE NO HOMIES HERE, THIS IS ..."

In my humble opinion, if you want to find "Homies" you need to travel to south LA and be careful to move quickly so you can dodge any stray bullet that might be fired between two groups of folks who prefer to wear different color handkerchiefs. Suburbia is NOT the place to find Homies! As a matter of fact, I have invested the last eight years of my life to rid our school of any illusion of "hominess."

Artist, Dave Gonzalez, has created a cute line of characters named "Homies" to celebrate street life. (http://www.homies.tv/homies2008/) These cute characters however are not allowed to adorn the notebooks of our students! Hard as I may try, there has always been a sub-group of the herd who are referred to as "the Homies" right along with the Jocks, Punks, and Skaters. Unfortunately, last week the "Homies" fell under some poor leadership and decided to "jump" a couple cop's kids for mad dogging them. NOT GOOD FOR THE HOMIES!

It is a pretty good rule of thumb, if you are going to assault someone, make sure that they are not related to the "Po Po." Needless to say, before the school day ended there were four "Homies" in handcuffs headed for juvenile hall. After a failed attempt earlier to disperse the group, they thought they could beat the system and settle the score by throwing the cop's kids on the ground and kicking them in front of their lockers. One of the boys ended up in the hospital.

INCIDENT REPORT:

XXXXX HIGH SCHOOL
STATEMENT OF
Pam Castleman, Assistant Principal

Re: Leader Homie, Smiley Homie, Angry Homie, and I Didn't Do It Homie

On February 13, 2008 at the beginning of 1st lunch (approximately 11:45 a.m.) I was alerted by Campus Supervisor, XXXXX, that Leader Homie and Cop's Son had faced off. According to the report, Leader Homie and his friends walked by Cop's Son and “mad-dogged” him. Cop's Son asked Leader Homie why they were giving him (and his friends) dirty looks and a verbal confrontation followed which the Campus Supervisor broke up and sent Leader Homie and his friends away.

A few minutes after I noticed Leader Homie and a large group of Latino males who were all wearing black and white begin walking south in the direction of Cop's Son and his friends, who were standing on the west side of the 8-building. The boys positioned themselves along the wall next to Cop's Sons' friends. I pulled the cart up in front of them so they knew they were being watched. When the bell sounded, I directed the boys to move to class. The group then dispersed.

Following lunch, I entered the Administration building and saw three students visibly injured sitting on the discipline bench. I later identified the boys as Cop's Son #1, Good Friend in Wrong Place, and Cop's Son #2. Cop's Son was unable to speak due to being kicked and hit in the stomach. During individual interviews the boys stated that Smiley Homie and Angry Homie approached them at their lockers on the west side of the 5-building and challenged them to fight after school. At that time Leader Homie and other Latino males approached, threw them on the ground and began hitting and kicking them. Teacher, XXXXXX and Campus Supervisors broke up the fight and escorted some of the students to the office.

We immediately called the police who arrested Leader Homie, Smiley Homie, Angry Homie and I Didn't Do It Homie who were identified by witnesses as those responsible for the boys’ injuries. the Police later transported the Homies to Juvenile Hall.

Respectfully Submitted,
Pam Castleman

Now as scary as this incident was, the humor of it all actually surfaced this week when we realized everyone was OK. My colleague walked by three lone Homies who were not incarcerated or suspended before school Tuesday and over heard one say, "I gonna mess him up." This was followed by his buddy stating the obvious, "You better not, or there won't be any Homies left"!!!! This one phrase has been my source of entertainment for the entire week! My boss was not at all amused when I asked if I could begin the expulsion hearing with a round of "Where have all the Homies gone... when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn"?

During lunch supervision today we were as jumpy as chihuahuas on caffeine when we couldn't find our three remaining Homies. We looked high and low, but could not find them anywhere. Their prime real estate (corner of Library) was as deserted as a ghost town. Now after a good laugh, I concluded that today must have been "Homie Ditch Day." I know I should not laugh at these young men's plight, however their ability to constantly raise my blood pressure coupled with their poor decision-making skills has left me a bit jaded for their well-being. I have no idea how I will spend my time now that we are "Homieless." But, hopefully I can find something to do... perhaps some "INSTRUCTUAL LEADERSHIP"?


(This one is for you Ana!)



Homies is © 2007 HomieShop LLC, MIJOS is TM HomieShop LLC, Hoodrats is TM HomieShop LLC

2-12-09 - RIP

He had a smile that would light the night... and a personality to match. He left us from an overdose of Xanax and the stupidity of his friends. I know how hard you tried my man, you will be missed.

We got that dipolma didn't we?

Love you,

Ms C

2-6-09 - The Return of Diego

Troubled teenagers and poison ivy have much in common, just about the time you think you are cured, another bump crops up! Diego came into our life two years ago (previous blogs 12/13/07, 1/24/08, 2/12/08) as a cocky belligerent freshmen. If the rules read move right, he was sure to move left then argue that you were out of step with him. He marched to his own drum and added a number of new gray hairs to my collection until he was expelled. We tried everything to reach this young man... attempted to interest him in the Marines, tried tough love, counseling, good cop/bad cop everything we could possibly think of, but always failed. He finally accrued enough suspensions that the School Board expelled him last spring.

Following his expulsion, he enrolled in a Los Angeles school district so we thought we had passed along our headaches to our neighbors over the hill. Hurricane Diego could now blow freely amongst the mass of other gang-banger wannabees along with the real deals. This lasted a couple months until... he was arrested for gun possession and was placed in Juvenile Hall.

After learning this, you can imagine how thrilled we were that he had now petitioned our own School Board and had convinced them that he was now "a changed man" and wanted to get an education. Last week his petition was granted. Now before we start judging our School Board, I have earnestly seen kids spend time in the hall or boot camps and come back more mature and ready to learn. After all a former student, Ming, re-enrolled last year after a period of time in a boot camp in the Central Coast, and graduated last year. Upon his return he presented a teacher with $50 that he had stolen from her classroom the year before, apologized to everyone he had wronged and he was a model to us all!

Unfortunately, this was not the case with Diego! Now in 11th grade, he had only been enrolled a couple days when his true "colors" came shining through. Yesterday a staff member turned in his notebook with tagging on it... this time a harder gang from over the hill. Before my colleague could call him in to discuss it, I found myself writing the following Incident Report:

XXXXXXXXX HIGH SCHOOL
STATEMENT OF
Pam Castleman, Assistant Principal


Re: "Diego"
DOB – X/XX/92

On Friday, February 06, 2009 at approximately 11:40 p.m., I received a radio call from a campus supervisor who stated that he needed an administrator for assistance. I looked up and noticed the campus supervisor attempting to stop student "Diego." According to the Campus Supervisor he had noticed that "Diego" had a drawing of a marijuana leaf on his notebook with the words “High Life” he had asked "Diego" to just tear that part off. He stated that "Diego" refused, said “F--k You” and attempted to walk away from him while he was speaking to him.

I asked "Diego" for the notebook and removed the paper myself. When I flipped the page over I noticed gang graffiti “XXX-13” on the back of the paper. I then asked "Diego" to step aside with me and asked him if I needed to contact his probation officer. He then remarked to me, “Don’t threaten me” and walked off. Under his breath he began cussing. I heard him being belligerent and told him that I was not threatening I was promising him that I would contact his P.O and we continued to exchange words. Once again he told me, “Don’t threaten me.”

I then asked a campus supervisor to escort him to the office for his defiance. In the office I asked him about the tagging and he stated that it stood for “XXXXX.” I also showed him additional tagging on his notebook that had been presented to my colleague the previous day by another school employee. Since I had many conversations with him prior to his expulsion for tagging on his notebooks and defiance to school officials I suspended him for three days.

Later that afternoon another campus supervisor came in my office to report yesterday "Diego" asked if “Robo Cop” (referring to another campus supervisor) still worked here, then commented… “I am going to kill the f--ker.”




Respectfully Submitted,
Pam Castleman

I released him to his parents, who once left the school told him he could not return home. We watched him walk down the street (opposite his parents) in the rain. Understanding that any tagging would be a direct violation of his probation, I tried for 45 minutes, and eventually got through to his probation officer in LA who wanted the incident report and tagging faxed to their office.

After I finished the report, I sat there sick to my stomach thinking of what was down the road for the young man. Once I got him to the office, he cried as he plead for me not to suspend him. As much as I knew that this young man was drowning in a chaos of his own making, my heart still ached for him. After a brief silent prayer in my head, I knew that I had to sacrifice the one for the good of the whole. Diego had returned to us the same way he left, and if I enabled him once again there would be no telling how many he would take along with him for his wild ride. I had a narrow opportunity to remove a cancer from our campus and I had no choice but to take action.

My prayers are still with this young man, for I fear the paths in which he is choosing is leading him to a place in which he will not be able to return.