I can't speak about Taylor's school experiences, but as for mine, I guarantee you that I never learned a fair amount of what they expected those kids to know.
Grammer-was not taught much at all about the actual rules ever. My Dad has an old school book that get's into root words, and other such parts of speech, and that is where I have learned most of what I can talk about grammer.
Orthography-I could do the prefixes, and use the same sounding words in the right sentences, and define a few terms, but nearly all of the rest would have me stumped.
History-don't think I would have any problems with this, although I can't say I know what "epochs" our history is divided into, and since this is 100 years later, that classification may have changed. Taking an AP course in US history last year really helped, although I have generally had good history teachers going back to fourth grade.
Arithmatic-I'm sure that if I knew what some of the numeric translations between terms was, I could do just fine. Math has not been butchered as much as the other subjects.
Geography-I think I could do all right here, but I must admit that it would not be as easy as arithmatic, or history.
I think that the main problem that our schools have today is that they don't always teach the fundamentals of language for one (When I think back on my high school english career, I can think of one thing: Claim, data warrant essays. Talk about beating a dead horse). As for my science experience, I have learned a fair amount, but the applications with geography would be far more practical than knowing about how many atoms are in avogadros number. I don't really have any complaints about history or math courses that I have taken, but english has been terrible. I honestly don't feel that I have a good grasp about the basic aspects of the English language, and comparing what I have learned to what my Dad had to, it's quite said. All they care about is essay after essay after essay, mixing in a very small amount of good vocabulary words, and a novel that is never even dicussed!
I should also point out that during my eighth grade year, I learned absolutely NOTHING in English or history. This is quite literal, because my combined Enlgish/Social Studies teacher left near the beginning of the year because she was so sleep deprived, and our class had numerous substitutes the rest of the year, none of whom knew what they were doing. I can remember doing the same worksheets three or four times throughout the year.
I think what is needed is a change of curriculum, although the way they are trying to do it now is all wrong. They are loading 2nd graders down with Algebra, and not a small amount either. I think that a lot of what is on this exam is far more practical than a lot of what I have learned, and that is important. The educators have forgotten that understanding the basic rules of English, Math, and history are just as important as learning everything after that. Well, I guess it goes to show that you can't trust your kids education to the educators alone anymore.
And now, back to narrow gauge.
