I don't know who ever thought that having to load two pages between each question was a good idea.
The people in charge of making money through advertisement.
I think that's true. There's no reason at all 8th graders couldn't handle the material covered on that test. The only difference between then and now is expectation, which has been dramatically lowered.
I wouldn't say dramatically lowered, I'd say slightly lower and more spread out. First of all, education in 1912 was not universal, as it basically is now, meaning those who were going to school were probably those who could afford it and those who came from more educated families. Furthermore, students today have a much larger range of information they are required to take in, not only in subjects directly taught, but in those indirectly taught as well.
Fiddy's point I think, and I agree with this, is not that expectations are lowered, but that they are different. The test material was not difficult, but some was simply not covered when I was in school. However, we covered a lot that was not on the test.
And students today are taught things which simply did not exist in 1912.
There is absolutely no doubt that this generation of Americans doesn't hold a candle to the generation that fought the two world wars in their youth, and designed rockets to go to the moon in their older age.
I'm saying this as a young man, too. There's simply no way we can compare what we've accomplished to what they were able to accomplish.
Really? The Internet, cars which can go 70 MPH, cars which can get 50 miles per gallon, buildings which can sustain tornadoes up to an EF5 rating? How the incredible advances in preservation of food, HIV treatment (really medical advances in general), the Mars Rover, etc.?
The idea that the people of today don't compare favorably to the people of yesteryear is simply false, in my opinion. If I lived in the 1960s and wanted to call someone to tell them about a moon rocket, I had to make sure no one else was on the party phone line. If I wanted to talk to my father who was serving in Europe during World War 2, I had to send a letter and wait weeks for a response. These days, I just shoot someone a text or Skype with my father. For goodness sake, we stream high definition TV over the Internet through a box I can hold in the palm of my hand.
By all means, our elders contributed much to society. But what is being contributed to society today is every bit as impressive.
