Sunday, May 08, 2016

MOTHER, EDUCATION, VOTING



Periodically I've been writing personal memories for my family so thought I’d share one commemorating my mother.  

Mother was born in nineteenth century United States to educated conservative but progressive farm parents as our agrarian society was becoming industrialized.   We had entered the twentieth century by the time Mother completed the 8th grade of school.   The Great Lakes State where she lived required those students wanting to attend high school must first pass a specially designed competency test referred to as “the Boxwell exam.”    
  
Mother’s parents encouraged their children who were so inclined to attend high school.   She passed the Boxwell, went off to a town the long-horse-and-buggy days-distance-away from her home to live weekdays with a family in the town where the high school was located.  In return for that family providing her board and room where she stayed while attending classes, she performed housekeeping duties in their home, plus her father paid them a small sum.    

Interestingly, I was able to locate the Boxwell exam's questions in the Ohio State University Library archives.     Here are a few questions with one I chose from each discipline an eighth grader was expected to have mastered.   The student was offered ten question choices in each discipline from which they had to select nine to answer.  
There were no yes/no or multiple choice questions as in many of today’s tests, often recorded on Scantron forms. 

Grammar and Composition:     
Analyze or diagram the following:  Captain Nathan Hale, a brilliant and handsome young man came forward and said, “I wiLL undertake it.”  His Last words were, “I regret that I have but one Life to Lose for my country.”

Orthography: 
7,8,9,10. Spell as the examiner pronounces: Aviator, vigil, Brazil, courtesy, tapestry, grieve, candor, reverie, Japanese, merino, sterile, dissent, refrigerate, justice, suffrage, peppermint.
Geography:
Write a short composition upon any of the following topics: "Raising Corn," "The Amazon Valley," "The Reciprocity Trade of the United States With Canada," “The Panama Canal" or "Our National Congress and Its Work of the Last Year."
Writing:
Write a short selection of poetry or prose from memory as a sample of your penmanship.
Reading:
Read for the examiners. (65%)
Arithmetic:
If ten men can dig a ditch 3.6 rods long, 2 feet deep in 8 days of 9 hours each, in how many days can twelve men dig a ditch 49 rods long and 3 feet deep if the days are only 8 hours long?
United States History including Civil Government:
What is a protective tariff? What is a tariff for revenue? What do you understand by the conservation of our natural resources?
Physiology:
Name the three divisions of the brain, and state the work of each division.                                                                                                                       

Click Boxwell's for a link to more details and questions if you're interested.    
 

Mother spoke of having to memorize all 88 Ohio counties; learning Latin to better understand the roots or relationships to some of our English words, especially scientific and legal ones, but these may have been high school studies.       

Following high school graduation Mother attended Kent Normal School (Kent State University now).  She became a teacher after completing the then required two year program for certification.  Subsequently she taught in a one room school house in her northern Ohio home community.   The experience of teaching all age students through eighth grade together in one room was the practice of the day.

1920 was the first year in which women could vote in the United States following passage of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution.   My mother became 21 that year, enthusiastically voting in that Presidential election.   She continued to proudly vote in all elections at every level throughout her life.    She cherished educated voting as a hard won right and a citizen's responsibility for living in this free nation.  

After meeting and ultimately marrying my father, they moved to a different area of the State where their family began.   Consequently, her life took quite a different path from that in education due to a variety of reasons, including the later development of unexpected health issues. 
 
Each year that I become older and closer to her age when she departed this earth, I increasingly think of matters I would so enjoy discussing with her now.   This year’s election is one such topic, especially when I read this description of issues in that first 1920’s election in which she voted.  

American Leaders Speak…    “…politicians were arguing…Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home there were strikes, riots and a growing fear of radicals and terrorists. Disillusionment was in the air…The debate between the nationalistic activism…and the global idealism…”. 

My mother had a very positive outlook on life as she adapted to changing times and circumstances.     She was loving and supportive of our family throughout my life as only a mother can be. 

24 comments:

  1. Interesting ... my mother was from the same era and a teacher also. She was a huge influence on my life.
    Thanks for the comment on my blog about smell and old memories ... I did read your March 2007 entry and enjoyed it a lot.

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    1. Expect you might have some interesting mother recollections, too, maybe you'll write about. Your blog post about smell triggering old memories is quite fascinating to me, also.

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  2. Nice tribute to your Mother, and an interesting slice of history. I would have had considerable trouble with two of the Boxwell questions you displayed.

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    1. Was intrigued with your current post describing the history of politics which correlates with some of what was said about 1920's election. Yes, some of those Boxwell questions and others on the test might well challenge us.

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  3. That American Leaders Speak quote could have been written today. Amazing. I doubt I could pass that exam. Very interesting post.

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    1. Being reminded of our nation's history, issues, and candidates behaviors through our Presidential election years may help put what's happening this year more in perspective as not so unique after all.

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  4. People were so much more educated back then even with only an eighth grade education. Hard to understand with so much more money being put into education. Very sad. But wonderful memories you have of your mother and your pride in her.

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    1. We do have to wonder why with all the education dollars being spent more isn't accomplished overall. So many challenges for our public education system including the expectation they teach more than just traditional academic subjects.

      Yes, given the challenges my mother encountered in life which I didn't detail, I have great respect for how she coped, the example she set, though we did not always agree, including in some our political views.

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  5. This is the best Mother's Day tribute I have ever read and also the most illuminating. Your mother's desire to educate herself and to be a teacher were so strong. And her civic engagement was inspiring. You are a lucky daughter to have had a mother like her.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, Hattie. Mother seemed to make the most of whatever situation she encountered.

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  6. Yes, that is what women do, and that's why the world still goes round.

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    1. Perhaps that's why at this point in time in our country, given the world situation, we might be best served by electing a woman president -- weighing the current front runner's positives versus any negatives!

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  7. What a lovely tribute. Wonderful, kind memories enrich are lives and help to make us who we are. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. So many memories we each can share.

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  8. A wonderful tribute to a wonderful mother. I am often amazed ith the wuality of her generation. Such women...makes you wonder where we are headed today.

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    1. I think every generation wonders that about the next and yet, here we are.

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  9. This is truly a beautiful tribute to your very awesome mother. You were both fortunate to have each other. It's very interesting to see what education was like before. I'm not so sure we're at the same caliber right now.

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    1. The changes in our culture a century later do challenge education today.

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  10. This is such a lovely tribute to a wonderful mother. Thank you so much for sharing.

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  11. Quite the test, Boxwell. I am impressed by the quoted question in arithmetic. I don't recall what level of mathematics we learned in 8th grade. I'm pretty sure that we did not start algebra until 9th.
    Cop Car

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    1. I didn't have algebra until my freshman year either, so was surprised to see that math problem. I wondered if that would be the one students would drop.

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  12. Our mothers influence our lives, so it is wonderful when one has a mother like you had. When we are young we do not think about asking our mothers many questions about life or other matters and as we grow older we wish we could.

    A long time ago I read a book of memoir by a soldier in the Civil War – he said he was not well educated but his English and grammar were excellent. It is too bad that the current culture in the US does not value education that much. When my daughters were in school I was so surprised by the lack of homework, or so little of it, that I gave them extra work, and took them to special classes on Saturday morning – they also had to read, watch very little TV. Now one is a physician and the other a director in a large corporation.

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    1. So many distractions for young people today so a framework parents provide can be significant as you describe having given your daughters.

      I find our culture's obsession with celebrity distressing compared with the lack of interest in education by so many of our population.

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