Educational testing circa 1927 and (Apple) core curriculum

    A few days ago when I called my mother to get my details straight for yesterday's "War of the Worlds" post, it occurred to me that, as she was born in 1920, in October of 1938 she would have been18 years old, by which age she should have already graduated from high school and started nursing school.
    So what was she doing home on the night of the "War of the World's" broadcast?
    When I asked my mother about it she shared with  me that she was still in high school at that time, a year behind where she should have been for her age, because she'd been held back in the second grade.  Here's how it happened:
    My mother had started out her education in first grade in the local Catholic parish school, but by the end of second grade her mother could no longer afford the fifty cents per month tuition.
    So my mother was switched to the public school.  But before she entered the public school she had to be tested.
    The test turned out to be an oral test administered by the second grade teacher.  There was only one question: 
    What starts with "A"?
    My mother gave the answer that the sisters at her Catholic school had taught her:  "Angel".
    "No," the public school teacher told her, "apple starts with 'A'."
    So my mother failed her test question and had to repeat the second grade in the public school.
    Subsequently she was always a year behind.
    And so 11 years later, on the evening of Sunday, October 30, 1938, instead of being in a nursing school dorm room grinding away at her books  for the next day's classes my mother was still a high school student slumming around at her friend's house and about to get the living bejimminies scared out of her by a fake Martian attack and become part of an iconic moment in American social history. 
    So it all worked out.
    And  how well did my mother like being the public school compared to being in the Catholic school?
    Tune in tomorrow for the answer! ;)