Jon, if I can find it, I’ll send you a copy of the 8th grade final exam from 1876. today I don’t believe a Phd Professor could pass it. Another thing, I come from a long lived lot, and when I was a kid my grandfather told me what it was like growing up right after the Civil War. He also told me that the Federal Government changes the History books in 1877 and again in the late 1890s for political reasons. He proved it to me by showing me his encyclopedia that was published before 1877. My mother who is 101 and still has her full mental faculties can still do what she calls kitchen math in her head and can calculate what everything she is buying in the grocery store including taxes so she knows what the bill will be to the penny and has it ready amazing the checkout people. I remember when we had Phonics in reading classes, and they were just starting to try and develop the New Math that made so many kids have no discernible math skills. So in answer to your question yes they are dumbing our kids down so they can use them as the slave labor of the future.