Education In America

Everyone talks endlessly about the poor state of the educational system in the U.S. To compare today's curriculum to that in 19th century America, a college professor in Kentucky has pointed out some examples from an eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas. Some of the questions include:

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
4. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
5. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
6. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
7. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
8. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
9. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

FWIW, I don't know where Hecla is either.