Are we getting smarter?

(This is a slightly edited repost of a blog post that I made all the way back in 2007)

The commonly-upheld Flynn effect simply states that the IQ of people go up over time (presumably with increasing technology and modernization). It was empirically observed over many circumstances for decades, though it has seemingly tapered off to nothing in the developed Western world. Though controversial, it is probably true that IQ does increase. 

But is IQ a meaningful measure of intelligence?

I don't think so at all. In fact, I think that a system where you extrapolate backwards to find that a genius like Aristotle has an IQ of about -1000, which is less than a slab of blue cheese, and brilliant men like Newton would have been stupider than house pets, then there's probably a problem with the system. I think that a system which seeks to give each generation a proactive pat-on-the-back for being smarter than their parents, is dangerous and hostile to human development. Instead, we eradicate the old knowledge to make room for the new. Pushing the envelope while ignoring the fundaments means that little is effectively learned.

I sometimes visualize intelligence as a fixed amount of railroad tracks. We can uproot the tracks and move them to the front of the line to keep going in the right direction, but we always have about the same quantity of track.

I would like to challenge the intelligence of my readers by sharing with them an 8th grade test from a town in Kansas in 1895. Does this sound like it should be hard? I bet all college graduates think they would be able to blow it away.


If the Flynn effect is correct, the average person of the time was slightly mentally retarded by today's standards... and this is Kansas, so you'd probably think they were even more lacking in intellectual sophistication. So have at it. Do you think you know your three Rs: reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic?




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, 1.25 hours)

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 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 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 6720 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 foot?

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)

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.'

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.

Now, I didn't expect that anyone in their right mind actually sat down and tried to do it, but did you notice the perhaps excessive difficulty of the questions? I honestly can't think of a single person in memory who would have known the answers to those questions in eighth grade. Even now, many years later, I think it would take a veritable renaissance man to do well on this exam. You may claim that some of the questions are merely period knowledge, and we should not know of them except as a historical curiosity... but most of them, particularly the understanding of business arithmetic and orthography, are still very helpful today. 


If you weren't going to college, weren't leaving town, and your parents were illiterate, isn't it kind of important that you at least know how to write a bank check? What I love about the old days in this regard is that teachers taught their students to fully grasp enough of the world that they could survive by 8th grade. If we put an 8th grader from the year 2011 on the streets, it's a sure bet they would need to acquire more skills to survive.

Let's not even mention that five-hour length... longer than the SAT, and a helluva lot longer than the average college final. The kids would have crimson asses from sitting on those hickory benches by the time they were done. Of course, they might have been crimson anyway, because kids were hit with a proper piece of wood at the discretion of their schoolteachers.

Most of these children who took this test would not have been thinking of eventually going to college. But if they could do well with this broad basis of knowledge, they'd stand a pretty damn good chance today! And they got by pretty well without college degrees back then. In a current world where college is an expected result of high school, public education up to grade 12 is often seen as a stepping stone without accountability... and colleges, run as they are by unrealistic academics who make up for their unrealism by creating an insular college bubble world, are even more destabilizing to a person's sense of reality.

No, ladies and gentlemen, I do not think we are growing any smarter. I don't think that we should lambast our ancestors for being primitive, and I think we should properly respect the elders among us now. There is a Flynn effect only because we make IQ whatever it needs to be to accomplish it. If we are on a peak of any sort, it is a peak very unmomentous indeed, because every single generation behind us has experienced the same peak in their own time.

(Unfortunately, I do not have a source for the 8th grade exam from Salina, KS. But I promise that it was actually cited at one point.)