Great test, for 8th graders living in 1895. If you could go back in time and give those folks a comprehensive 8th grade test from today, they wouldn't have much of a clue. We could replace Orthography with computer literacy and maybe arithmatic with a sampling of various math disciplines, physics and science. We could ask them to name the current countries that comprise Africa or Eastern Europe... maybe have them calculate a possible exchange rate of the Euro vs the Dollar or the Yen. They would be baffled.

It's pretty much an apples and oranges comparison.

As a side note, I wouldn't be surprised if future generations see less written language and will be required to react more quickly to spoken language as technology continues to rule the day. Time marches on and for better or worse, things change.

and a surprising number of those voting democratic will be those who work with their hands for a living.

DBP..
i think you.. and those who cited a text's "inappropriateness for high school students" underestimate high school students.

Kootch...

has it occurred to you yet that English only education is a handicap to the English speaking students?
a lot of growth economies do business in spanish.

kootch..

we were talking about retirement funds, not send the kids to college funds...

regardless, an investment you can count on is always better than one that might have made you more money if only you had taken the risk.

because that word risk indicates that not only are you risking not making more.. you are risking losing it all.

in your example, better you could afford community college than no college at all.

Kootch..

i agree with Redblack that beating anyone in effigy in public is one of those What were they thinking moments...

but i wish i felt that you were more upset by the fact that this governor was a woman or a woman of color
than the fact that this governor was a Republican.

kootch..

the supreme court found it discriminatory to invade the privacy of women...

an astounding decision at a time in our country's history when many state laws considered women little more than the property of their husbands or nearest male relatives.

Regardless of how you choose to view that decision, it is the law of this land
and it's the DOJs job to uphold the law.
even when politics is used as the excuse to break it.

Mayor McGinn's compassion has allowed Nickelsville to become a functioning community.

How about Everett? They wanted NASCAR up there; let them build a basketball stadium instead. Let some other county pay for it when the it-pays-for-itself doesn't.

what the AFL-CIO did in SC was infantile, and not a way that I would expect grown adults leaders to act. But...as you and I well know, humans are imperfect..and boy, were those guys imperfect that day. While it might have helped them to vent just a little, what the hell were they thinking?

and just so everyone is clear...Nikki Haley, gov. of SC was born in SC, of Indian Sikh descent...and that is why Kootch called her (or her effigy), "woman of color"...

I am not a fundamentalist. But they are for this election cycle, allies in the Great Crusade. As irritating as Bernard Montgomery was, Ike knew he needed his allies. I am pretty much content to let them live life as they see fit. Make laws that reflect community standards. Evolution is not always good... sometimes it is just an aberrant mutation, damaging to the host. Eventually it dies out. It detracts from the health of the species. Few "evolutions" are successful.... most fail.

South Park !

Burien!

Ok then JoB... if you were 40 years old, with three kids to send to college... your portfolio would be utilities? Hope they like community college.

I beg to differ, Mr. Kootchman. The foreign- born adults that I am familiar with have mostly made outstanding attempts at, and have largely succeeded at, learning English. Including my wife. She also gained U.S. citizenship. And, no, the citizenship test was not given in her native tongue.

My mother's mom came from Norway. There was much Norwegian spoken at home in the early 1900s. Church services were often in Norwegian. The immigrants spoke to each other in Norwegian. The children learned English. My mom was born in 1917 in North Dakota. She still knows some Norwegian. Why? Because that is what her immigrant parents spoke at home and in church. She learned English just as, in my experience, the children of immigrants do today: in school and in general society. Both of my step-children were born in a foreign country, yet their current language is OUTSTANDING English. They are both in their early thirties now.

Honestly, you seem to want to believe something that is simply not reality.

well as it so happens, Messer redblack, pumping the inflation engine is how your government subsists. Inflation is simply defined.

Inflation is defined as a sustained increase in the general level of prices for goods and services. It is measured as an annual percentage increase. As inflation rises, every dollar you own buys a smaller percentage of a good or service

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/university/inflation/inflation1.asp#ixzz1vlG1Ybrh

Government benefits, because tax revenues rise. At every level. Income demands force wages up. More income tax. See how they never adjusted AMT for inflation? That was a major looting of the middle class. Second, US dollars are cheaper, so the government pays it's debt obligations which are generally fixed rates, with dollars that are worth less. Fixed income pensions of course get slammed hardest. You pension annuity is paid at an agreed rate. Your dollar income is fixed, but you pay more and more of that dollar to increased goods and services. we are all aware of what inflation does. BTW... HP is laying off over 28,000...8% of it's workforce. Income dropped over 30%... there is a company that cannot price against inflation. A HP has lots of substitutions Acer, Lenova, Dell, Toshiba, Sony..etc etc etc....

And you know how we break inflation? Choke off the money supply to lessen demand which lowers prices, wages, jobs etc. The parade is marching to the cliff.

It's scary if you are on disability or SS... because every increase in prices... means ya get less and less for every dollar.

kootch...

sorry.. i am too tired to be diplomatic tonight.

what a load of drivel.

jan..

what a great idea

DBP

i wish i could say that as an empowered woman i no longer face discrimination based on my sex.

i can't.

ok...in another thing you can't make up...Trent Franks from Arizona decided he wanted to get legislation about abortions in Wash, DC...and here's what happened...

http://jezebel.com/5912790/arizona-congressman-who-proposed-dc-abortion-ban-gets-hilarious-payback-from-pissed-off-dc-residents

lolol..

Where will you get the returns that will keep up with inflation, the promises made?

stop treating economic inflation like it's cancer. it's not. you use that term as a scare tactic, because most americans don't even know what it is. but republicans say it's bad, so it must be bad.

"whatsa matter, pal? inflation gotcha down?

"invest in the stock market!

"you'll be rich and callous! just like me!"

read the dean baker article i linked in the other thread.

i dare you.

i double-dog dare you.

gee, DP. i have nothing in common - politically or otherwise - with the port, the mariners, or (especially) the times.

sounds like the mayor is a lot like me.

and maybe the mariners regret putting that fiasco of a corporate welfare eyesore at first and atlantic. i sure do.

me? i would tell the california hedge fund manager to look a little farther south and get that traffic the hell away from downtown SR99.

beyond that, if it pays for itself, then let the capitalism flow.

kootch:

LOL. thanks, man. seriously. at first i thought you might be parodying fundamentalism, but then i realized that you're serious, and i think you might be angry.

so i won't say anything else to you on this subject ever again, and i officially concede the thread to your rantings. your words speak for themselves.

well-played, sir.

by the yea, evolution called. you're late.

Stop it! He IS a man of action. It took over 100 years, but we finally have green boxes painted on streets. No other mayor has managed to do so. I think they are for bicycles... but no one seems to know.

It was true then. Not for the same reasons. The parents insisted that the kids speak English. In fact, as difficult as it was.. most of the immigrant adults made serious attempts to be English proficient. The German Club, for instance, gave regular night classes for what few German Jews were left after the war. There was no bilingual signs in stores or shops .. Chinatown being the exception. They can become proficient in comparative ethnic studies.. after the mastery of basic math, science and English literacy.

kootch: it's a primary. "uncommitted" got a lot of votes in the caucuses here lately, too.

but come november, democrats will vote democratic.

Kootchman:

The young children of new immigrants into the USA almost always speaks "normal" American English when they reach their teens. Yes, kootch, even today. Check it out. Many do not even WANT to learn their parents' native language. My foreign born wife's sister-in-law would spank her kids because they did not want to learn the "native" language. Oh, incidently, both kids grew up to be lawyers in the "shock" USA.

well how can it be... in a Democratic primary, with an incumbent, and no national challenger... Obama loses 40% of Democratic vote in Kentucky, and then the White House releases a press statement he secured a "commanding lead"... WHAT? I don't think losing four out of ten votes to "anyone but Obama" is a riled up progressive base.

In Kentucky’s closed primary, about 42 percent of registered Democrats who voted selected “uncommitted.

Arkansas does likewise..... In Arkansas’ open primary, voters could select a ballot for either party. Early returns showed a Tennessee attorney, John Wolfe, drawing about 40 percent on the Democratic side.

That's his southern strategy?

I am so waiting to hear from The Messiah and his minions... when the AFL-CIO uses the image of the WOMAN governor of SC plastered on a pinata' and beats it with an aluminum baseball bat. The backround vocals were revealing. Now, just suppose, that during a TEA Party rally, an effigy of Obama was suspended on a rope, and beaten with a baseball bat?!!??!?! It's OK though to declare war on Republican women and simulate a baseball bat beating. what say you JoB? The fires of race baiting would be stoked, respect for the office.. blah blah blah blah.... there would have been a thread and links flying in the WSBlogosphere... the liberals would be chortling with joy... they FINALLY found their closet racist. But, beating a Republican woman of color in effigy passes progressive muster? Now the Democrats ARE starting to look desperate. The AFL-CIO returns to it's roots... racist and anti-woman.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/nikki-haley-pinata-controversy-did-afl-cio-leader-go-too-far-video-75407/

I was born and raised in Queens, NYC. More foreign languages are spoken in the borough than any county in the USA. It has had that distinction for almost a century. Our schools were essential to integrate and assimilate. It was job one. There were too many of us, too diversified, to pay homage to our ethnic backround and certainly no curriculum that paid heed to to restrictions on our futures based on our race. That would be a later invention. when "professionals" took over the system.

The only reason the Mariners are against it, is they are fighting for sports fan's dollars.
People only have so much time and money to see a sporting event. It costs somewhere in the $200-$300 range for a family of four including parking, food, and maybe a souveneir at a game.
If basketball comes, more choices, less money to go around.

That's interesting, Jan! That curriculum sounds pretty much the same as things I learned in middle school and high school, and I haven't even been out of high school a decade. We did learn basic computer programming and graphic design as well, beginning in grade school. However, I come from a rural school in the Midwest, so that's probably well behind what kids learn in Seattle schools.

Yup, times have changed and the internet and computers have done a lot of the changing for/to us. Yet we have to go forward.Other countries are and unless we want to be a 3rd world country we have to keep up.Personally I do not wish for us to become the most backward country in the world.I want us to be productive citizens of a modern world.If not we are left behind.

My mom always said she felt like she was not living in her world anymore, I get that ~ things move too quickly for me sometimes.I'd love technology to slow down a bit and let me catch my breath but that is not going to happen.
Times change and we have to also.

how many of us just stumble over the terms in that test? But...should we go back to how it was? I lament the fact that cursive is no longer taught in grade school like it was when I was there..lots of papers with OOOOO's, and LLLLLLL's and TTTTT''s, and practice, practice, practice. And we had a civics class in highschool, where we learned about writing checks, balancing a checkbook, and the branches of gov't., esp. our city government, and the penal system, and field trip to the local prison (I suppose so we would decide to not end up there), and we had to learn all about the Decl. of Independence, and the Constitution, and basically how things worked. We had home ec...made clothes in sewing class, cooked meals...boys and girls. We took classes that pertained to what we wanted to do when we graduated. College bound kids took College prep classes, there was a nursing program (they actually wore nurses uniforms). There were business"majors", who ended up working downtown their senior year, and a mechanics choice, for those who wanted to go into that. It prepared you to be self sufficient when you got out of school.Things change - that's not necessarily a bad thing. Now it's all geared to going to college...and computers/the internet have, of course, changed things. Again neither necessarily bad or good...it just is. We can't go back..but we can lament what we think should be still...

I'm thinkin' that if Mayor Mike was a smart man, he'd tell all those folks who want him to run again to go jump...and go back to lawyerin'....

A fascinating document.

And note that there is not a single multiple-choice question in the lot. Presumably that means each answer would be graded on "orthography," reasoning skills, and style — in addition to knowledge of the material!

I'm ashamed to admit that I would flunk that test in a heartbeat, to say nothing of how I would've fared in 8th grade.

And that's assuming that all the questions on obsolete information had already been removed.

And that I was using a calculator.
 

No Fox News viewers here.. but the argument between a male student and his teacher...in SC showed the liberal claptrap and outright deception our kids are subjected to. The kid was better read, more fully formed and rational than his teacher... but while we tra la la la.. down ethnic studies lane.. we have dropped 20 places in international proficiency... BUT... we rank first in the world in self esteem. Good trade off.

8th grade exam 1895. Salinas, Kansas

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 do, lie, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case

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, super.
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 N.A.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
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. per bu, 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 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 inch?
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 around which is 640 rods?
10.Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

Yes JoB they USED to be. And why aren't they now? Public utilities had a fixed, assured, ROI.... set by a regulatory body like Snohomish County PUD.. They got a monopoly in exchange for an assured income. A steady, consistant rate of return. Rates were in essence, cost plus. Now what if your PUD... has to buy windmill power, solar power, and eschew coal? Their cheapest energy source. well, if it is cost plus.. who get slammed the hardest on utility bills? It ain't me or you. Sooooo utilities jump high hurdles to get rate increases. Or, even IF you DO conserve, their income stream slows.. and unbelievably. they try and raise your rates .. making conservation more expensive than consumption. Seattle City Light did it this fiscal year.. they raised rates because we were conserving too much energy.

Now here's the part that frosts a pumpkin or two... the reason you CANNOT invest in public utility? Costs. The pension plans have promised benefits that outstrip the utilities capacity to fund. You can't promise a five year contract with raises and pension increases of 5% AND be an affordable utility. So, your pension funds to meet those promises... they bet more on the upside of risk. That's why the biggest holders of derivatives and hedge funds are? education pension funds... see the last review of the Harvard pension fund and endowment income...where did it all come from? Those private equity placements. In short the ROI in utilites is too low to meet their obligations. Now if the federal government hadn't taxed away 14% of your income in SS, 25% personal income, you MIGHT..as a retiree transfer your more speculative equities to an assured fixed income dividend from a utility company for the last 20 years of your life.

No, public utilties do NOT have growth potential.. they are old man and old woman stocks. You are looking for an annuity by dividend. You do not build wealth in utilities. Not with the inflationary pressures placed on pension and benefit plans to meet overly generous giveaways. when you give 4-6 months of your total income to subsidize government... and half your working life is support government.. you can't take a wait let it grow slow approach.

Ironic don't ya think? one of the biggest class of investors in Hedge Funds, Derivatives, private equity etc.. are unions? Maybe if the weren't so flippin' greedy at the bargaining table and looked to the long term interest of their members.. well, that's never been their strong suit. Bet they wish for the good old days when they were the cash cow for organized crime. As long as the labor bosses get theirs.... first.

Welcome to Seattle, dude.

Turns out this really was your city after all.

******************************************************************************************

Still reeling from his third and final Viaduct Tunnel rebuke, Mayor McGinn was desperately looking for something to salvage his legacy, a way to restyle himself as Mr. Can-do, instead of Mr. Won't-do-and-you-can't-make-me.

Then along comes a stadium proposal. And best of all, it's going to pay for itself.

And if it doesn't, what the heck? At least the taxpayers won't have to.

This could be just the ticket, thought Mike.

But wait. What's this?

The Port's agin it?

The Mariners are agin it?

Even the Times are agin it?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018264119_citygrowth23m.html

All still in favor: vote Aye. (Yi-yi!)

 
Oh well. See you at the primaries, guy.

      Or maybe not.
 

No you are incorrect. Roe v. Wade after an agonizingly long search by the liberal Burger court..Roe v. wade and Doe v Bolton... was decided by " a privacy" construct by the court.

The basis of that decision was NOT discrimination. It was also tempered by the decision of the court, that as the child progresses in utero, the states interest did also, Hence the trimester ruling. Later struck down.

Funny, how that Supreme Court thing works. when it's a liberal interpretation... it's solid gold. Nothing else to discuss.

So when the Supreme Court also found the state had a compelling interest in voter ID and registration... settled quite handily ... in the Indiana case..... why the liberals went nuts...

These United States, JoB....the DoJ is selectively targeting Republican states, blocking implementation... on case law already decided. ... based on the constitution. Voter ID JoB .. law of the land.

Based upon this DoJ.... it will be a long long long time before the respective states give anymore powers to the federal government. They abuse the ones they have. Denying highway trust funds... to appease a lingering ghost of prohibitionist women... if the states didn't all raise the drinking age to 21.. that was a good one .. and the results were at best mixed. Most Universities report increased binge drinking and fatal alcohol intoxication since that legislation. Bar tending was a staple of college kids seeking to make a few bucks to offset college expenses. Now we just want to loan them money... and crush them with debt. Yep.. try and get someone to admit that might have been bad law.

Well, see there? That's what I'm talking about.

The Ethnic Studies supporters were saying:

We've got a good program, here. We're seeing more of our students graduate.

All well and good. But to some Arizonans that sounds like:

Hey we're bringing grades up, so we're above criticism. Don't ask us to make any changes.

In the PBS show, the program's critics base much of their case on Pedagogy of the Oppressed, a Marxist-influenced classic that the Ethnic Studies Program was apparently using as a textbook.

That book might be appropriate for a college-level Poli-Sci or Sosh course, where students can put terms like "oppressed nationalities" and "capitalist labor relations" into context. But it is not appropriate for a high-school level course of any kind.

Unfortunately, I never heard any of the Ethnic Studies folks offer to remove the book from the curriculum. Which I think contributed to the creation of a stand-off.

****************************************************************************************

We might consider this dilemma in terms of the immigration debate as well.

Suppose Arizona says to the Feds: "We've got a problem with illegal immigration here and you're not doing enough about it."

Feds' response: "Problem? We don't see any problem. We're working on important stuff now. Go 'way. Git! "

Arizona says: "If you don't help us with this, we'll deal with it on our own, and you might not like what we do, cuz we're angry up in here."

Feds say: "Go ahead, punks. Make our day."
 
(See how that works?)
 

I highly doubt that's the case with JoB, DBP...

Mike

You are absolutely right. We don't want or need patronization by individual father figure men or either political party.

we demand an end to discrimination based on our sex.

Jo, you seem like a pretty empowered woman to me. And there are lots of women like you around these parts.

Is there some man keeping you down, holding you back?

Do tell.
 
 

OK . . . so maybe you're not oppressed, personally. Maybe you see yourself as carrying the torch for others less privileged than yourself.

That worries me. It's nothing personal, mind. It's just that, historically, we've had some bad experiences with privileged people claiming to represent the interests of unprivileged ones.

(See also Mitt Romney. See also Barack Obama.)
 

...and women, (and others that have struggled to achieve equality) simply want equality, not domination. Of course, there will be a relatively few exceptions.

Furthermore, even if a woman were to become the richest person in the world, doesn't mean that the struggle, nor the need for protections has ended.

Some that argue against the protections, seem to be of the mindset that if one person, from a group that had historically struggled to achieve equality becomes a raging success, that things are all hunky-dory, for all in that group, and the struggle has ended, and protections should be voted out.

Mike

DBP..

I happen to know about this program...
a good program that was doing an excellent job of educating children.

it's downfall?
it did too good a job of assimilating latino children and made them too competitive with their non-latino classmates:(

that backlash everyone is talking about?

it's a backlash to the erosion of privilege.

Kootch

ROFLOL

you made a statement i agree with

"women today do not have your feelings of powerlessness and such great incapacity that they need a "patronizing" protector."

You are absolutely right. We don't want or need patronization by individual father figure men or either political party.

we demand an end to discrimination based on our sex.

and .. we will get it too ;->

Kootch..

public pensions used to be invested in thing like public utilities.. which have proven growth potential...

that is.. before Wall street decided our pension money belonged in their pockets.

returns only work out if the next egg you are counting on for those returns isn't continually wiped out:(

kootch..

that Obama panders to Wall Street doens't make it right.. and you know it.

Cody is a self serving ass...
trying to sell America on his right to pillage our financial system

trouble is..
he seems to have forgotten that America contains more than the 1%

Kootch..

"The Supreme Court has upheld Roe v. Wade. However, it is not embraced in other parts of the country."

These United States Kootch
and their supreme court upheld Roe v. Wade on the basis of the Constitution of these United States

the basis of that decision was discrimination

kootch..

"No. You think it is wrong."

"Fine, don't do it, don't practice it. But, when your sanctification crosses that fine line, of using government to wield your cudgel, others will do likewise. what will happen is what is happening...backlash."

kootch.. we were talking about beating women.

so am i supposed to get from this that you think it is ok to beat women?

and that the violence against women act is using a government cudgel to stop the violence against women which justifies a backlash.. promoting discriminatory practices against women?

Whoa nelly...
if you didn't just make the most cogent argument for the need for the violence against women act i have ever read.

Need, Kootch.

"In fact, most states have very specific laws against fetal homicide don't they? Your wife beater, if by his action, kills an infant in utero... we don't have an assault, we have a homicide. So his defense is ... it wasn't human, it was only a "possibility'? Square that one. "

and who passed those felony murder laws for a wife beater who causes a miscarriage kootch?

You don't get to pass a law that "legalizes" a fetus and then use that law as a justification for passing discriminatory laws against women.

personally, i am against those laws.

I believe that the correct charge should be attempted murder..
of the pregnant woman...
since intentionally causing the kind of harm that will cause miscarriage often results in death for a pregnant woman.

just because you opened the door doesn't mean you get to stick your foot in it...

It's not a possibility... only as you define it... others define life differently. In fact, most states have very specific laws against fetal homicide don't they? Your wife beater, if by his action, kills an infant in utero... we don't have an assault, we have a homicide. So his defense is ... it wasn't human, it was only a "possibility'? Square that one. Are you suggesting it's a possibility then, a life when not?. The economic and health risk was taken when they had sex. Yea.. you can trot out the very rare R & I argument,...but there is no lack of birth control, and the state cannot shield anyone from making bad judgements.