A real test

Questions show what schools once accomplished—with a lot less money than today | Joel Belz

The next time you hear a plea for a tax increase in your area to enhance the quality of education, be bold to ask the people in charge: "What enhancements have you achieved with the money you already have?"

I couldn't help thinking about that a few days ago when my wife, a favorite aunt, and I spent most of a week emptying the home of Henrietta Abels, a devoted 99-year-old Christian woman who had died not long before. In the process, we ran across a little booklet called Stephenson's Iowa State Eighth Grade Examination Question Book. The 59-page pamphlet, published in 1924, was to help eighth-graders take the test at the end of their elementary years that would qualify them to move on into high school.

The bottom line is that most high-school seniors in 2006 would find the eighth-grade guide of 1924 quite a challenge. The questions covered 10 different subject areas—and you might enjoy (or you might not) matching your wits against those of a typical Iowa eighth-grader 80 years ago.