Interconnect

Dumbing down: the proof

If you can answer the questions below, you are as well informed as a clever 11-year-old in Birmingham in 1898. Warning: you may be in for a humiliating experience

As a service to Spectator readers who still have any doubts about the decline in educational standards, we are printing these exam papers taken by 11-year-olds applying for places to King Edward’s School in Birmingham in 1898.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

1. Write out in your best handwriting:—

‘O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
Across the sands o’ Dee.’
The



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