Are You Smarter Than an 8th Grader…IN 1895!?

Stephen Dubner, writing at the Freakonomics blog at The New York Times, has reproduced a final exam given to the eighth-grade class in Salina, Kansas in 1895.

You can see the entire test here.  I have reproduced the United States History section below.

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

We could probably get some discussion about this test on two levels.  First, could you pass it?  Second, in one way does it reflect civic education in the late nineteenth-century?

HT: Joe Carter