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Saturday, March 4, 2017

A Favorite Column on the Census -- 1940 #14



On the 1940 census, column 14 asked for the highest grade of school completed for that individual. Of course, I was too little to have gone to school but the listing for my parents showed that my father had completed the 8th grade and my mother had graduated from high school. That agrees with my records and recollection of what they told me.

I looked at the listings for my grandparents and found one grandfather had completed 7 grades and the other grandfather and two grandmothers had finished 8 grades. By 1940 only two of my great-grandparents were still alive. My great-grandfather had completed 4 grades and my great-grandmother had completed 5. However, I wonder if that is accurate because I know she taught school. Maybe all you had to do was pass a test to do that. Looks like more research is needed.

So I looked at my parents siblings and my grandparents siblings that I had located in the 1940 census (there are still some to find) and found 19 more entries. So I added the 19 to the 2 parents, 4 grandparents and 2 great-grandparents for a total of 27 individuals. Then I gathered the statistics and found the following.
Number who completed 4 years of high school = 3
Number who completed some high school = 4
Number who completed the 8th grade = 10
Number who completed less than 8th grade = 10

I am afraid that I took for granted my opportunity to complete high school and then go to college. Many of my relatives in the past didn't get that same advantage. Now that I am more aware, I can appreciate getting to go to school.

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