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PAPERS on SCHOOL ISSUES OE THE DAr. XI.

EXAMINATIONS

AS

TESTS lolFllOMOTM.

—BY—

Brooklyn, N. Y.

A Paper read before the National Educational Associa- tio:n^, at St. Paul,- Min^n^., July, 1890.

SYRACUSE, N. Y. :

C. W. BAROEEN, PUBLISHER.

1890.

TRW SClTOOt SULLETTN PTTBUCATTONS.

The Five Great English Books.

The recognition of Teaching as a Science was much earlier in Enjjlaiid than in this country, and the five books which are there recoffuizert as stan- dards, have probably no equals in soundness and scope. Hence they are usually the first books adopted by Readin^r Circles, and are indispensable to the libi-ary of an intelligent teacher. These are:

1. Essay* on Educational Reformers. By Robert Henry Quick. Cloth, 16mo, pp. 330. Price $1.50.

This is altogether the best History of Education. " With the suggestion that study should be made interestinf/," writes Principal Morgaii, of the Khode Island State Normal School, " we most heartily agree. How this may be Cione, the attentive reader will be helped in learning by the study of this admirable book."

S. The First Three Years of Childhood. By B. Perez. With an intro- duction by Prof. James Sully. Cloth, 12mo, pp. 294. Price $1.50,

This is uicomparably the best psychology for primary teachers, and forms tlie proper Basis for pedagogical knowledge. The Journal of Pedagogy says (April, 1889): " Some of the greatest questioiss relating to primaiy edu- cation cjin only be solved by an accurate observation and correct interpre- tati(m of the infant mind, and as the author of this volume combines the proper qualifications for the work with ample opportunity, his observations and deductions are entitled to the highest confidence."

S. Lectures on Vie Science and Art of Education, By Joseph Payne. Cloth, ICmo, pp. 384. Price, $1.00.

The student is now ready to take up the Science of Education, which is nowhere else so brilliantly and effectively presented. The lectures are sin- gularly fascinating, and the full analysis and indexes in this edition make it easy to collate and compare all that the author has uttered upon any topic suggested.

h. The Philosophy of Education, or the Principles and Practice of Teaching. By Thom/ ' Tate. Cloth, IGmo, pp. 440. Price $1.50.

This gives the application of the Science to the Art of Teaching, and is without a rival in its clear presentation and abundant illustrations. The author is not content with giving directions. He shows by specimens of class-work just what may be done and should be done.

5. Introductory Text-Book to School Education, Method and ScJiool Man- agenient. By John Gill, (loth, IGmo, pp. 27G. Price $1.00.

This supplements the work of all the rest by practical directions as to School Management. Of the five this has had a sale equal to tliat of all the rest combined. The teacher's greatest difficulty, his suiest discoonfiture if he fails, is in the discipline and management of his school. That this man- ual has proved of inestimable help is in-oved by the fact tluit the present English edition is the 44th thousand printed.

C. W. BAKDKEN, Piiblislier, Syracuse, N. ¥•

EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS FOR PROMOTION.

W. H. MAXWELL, BROOKLYN, N. Y.

(A paper read before the National Educational Association, at St. Paul, Minn., July, 1890.)

It is fortunate for me that this paper is to be read before a convention of professional teachers. It is fortunate, first, because my mind has not yet reached conviction on many of the questions involved, and you as experts will appreciate the difiiculties of one who is still in the stage of experiment- making. It is fortunate, in the second place, because it is impossible within the limits of time allowed, to discuss with anything like fullness of detail the many important questions which the subject suggests. All I can hope to do is to raise the leading points at issue, to state briefly some of the arguments pro and con, and leave to you the task of filling in the details and illustra- tions.

I did not choose this subject, nor did I select the title; and, to prevent mis- understanding, I shall begin by defining terms. What is promotion ? In a system of graded schools promotion means the moving of a pupil from a lower grade to a higher grade. The term implies that the pupil has accomplished with a reasonable degree of efiliciency the work of the lower grade, and that he is ready to begin the more advanced w^ork of the higher grade. Examina- tion, as the term will be used in this paper, is any means that may be employed by a teacher, a principal, or a superintendent, to discover whether a pupil has completed with a sufficient degree of efficiency the w ork of the lower grade, and whether he is ready to begin the work of a higher grade. To examine means literally to "weigh carefully," hence to test, to try. When we examine a child, we simply test whether he has accomplished certain work, and whether he is ready to proceed with certain other work.

Examinations under some conditions are legitimate ; under other conditions are illegitimate. How shall the legitimacy be determined?

Dr. White distinguishes between examination as an element of teaching and examination as a test for promotion, and seems to regard the former as not only legitimate, but necessary, and the latter as not only unnecessary, but il- legitimate. I cannot admit Dr. White's distinction. All examinations are elements of teaching. Whether they are made for the purpose of testing a pupil's knowledge, or of determining his fitness for promotion, they are equally elements of teaching. They are teaching him either something good or some- thing bad. They are training him in a right direction or in a wrong direc- tion. Everything done in a school-room is an element of teaching ; and it is our business to see that each thing done is an element in teaching what is good.

Here, then, we have found a criterion by which to determine the legitimacy or illegitimacy of any form of test or examination. Is it an element in teach-

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2 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

ing what is good ? If it is, let us use it. If it is not, let us not touch the unclean thing.

But in order to apply this criterion, we must classify examinations. They may be classified according to the immediate object for which they are con- ducted^^ as daily examinations^eview^examinations, and comprehensive or stated exaniinatious.

By daily examinations I mean the sharp, rapid cross-questioning to which every skillful teacher subjects his pupils. The questions may test the connec- tion between the lesson in hand and one that has gone before, or they may test knowledge of the subject under consideration, or they may be used to dispel illusions, or they may suggest and elicit a new train of thought that flows from the lesson like a brooklet from a spring; but in all cases, they have quite as good a right to the title of examination as either the review or the stated examination. . Socrates y3:as.. the Jlrst-grfiaii.ex^ininex_wJiQSe examination questions are still extant, and those who believe in examination have no need to be ashamed of the inventor of the system.

Review examinations, generally written, are given primarily for the pur- pose of testing whether the knowledge imparted is retained with sufficient ac- curacy and clearness. They are sometimes given at stated intervals, though the more progressive among teachers now adopt the plan of giving a review examination whenever the study of some natural division of a subject, as dec- imal fractions in arithmetic, or one of the grand divisions in geography, is completed.

Comprehensive, or stated, examinations are intended or should be intended to test whether students have a comprehensive grasp, not of petty details, but of the general outlines of a subject, whether they know the relations of the various parts to one another and to the whole.

These three different kinds of examination, the daily examination, the review examination, and the comprehensive examination, exhaust all possible kinds of examination. The inquiry is now pertinent as to how far and under what conditions they are elements in teaching what is good.

But first, what is teaching? Dr. White defines teaching as "the applying of means to the pupil's mind in such manner as to occasion those mental ac- tivities that result in knowledge, power, and skill." Teaching, according to this definition, in which as far as it goes I heartily concur, includes both in- struction and training — instruction being that |)art of teaching which results i in knowledge, and training that part which results in power or skill. The / question then resolves itself into this: I^ examination one of the means thaH occasion those mental activities which result in knowledge, power, and skill?—'

The reply must be in the affirmative. Certainly it will be so with regard to the daily and review examinations; and, rightly considered, it can hardly fail to be so also with regard to the comprehensive, or stated examination. The ground is exactly the same in all three cases. Knowledge is not knowl- edge when it has been merely taken in. It is not knowledge until it has

EXAMINATIONS A8 TESTS FOB PBOMOTION. 3

passed through the mind and come out again in words or actions of our own. ntil this is done we cannot be sure even that we possess knowledge. Every thorough-going student has been at some time or other, when confronted with examination questions, amazed at his own ignorance of subjects with which he y. fondly imagined he was thoroughly familiar. There is probably no better te^^t of a teacher's ability than his power to determine, during the giving of a lesson 7 or after it has been given, whether it has been mastered by his pupils. And yet I have frequently seen teachers of great ability astonished at their pupils' ignorance of subjects which they, the teachers, thought had been completely mastered. In all these cases the examination test shows that the knowledge in question has not been assimilated, has not been converted into faculty. The very act of reproducing knowledge in the pupil's own words or acts is one of the best means of converting it into faculty ; but it is not the only means. The process is not complete when isolated facts, nor even when divisions of a subject, have passed through the mind and been reproduced. All this is necessary, but it is not enough. It is but a means to an end, and^ the end is the comprehension of a subject as a whole, and the comprehensioiK of the relations of the various parts to one another and to the whole. This aim should be held steadily in view by every teacher, no matter how small a portion of a subject may fall to his lot to teach in a particular grade. I can conceive it possible that where one teacher, as sometimes happens in a college or university, begins and ends the teaching of a single subject, the compre- hensive examinations might be abandoned without serious injury. But in a ' system of graded schools, in which each teacher teaches only a small fraction of a subject, in which the teachers differ so largely, as they inevitably must, in ability, in manner, and in method, there is absolutely no other way by which to test whether pupils have attained a comprehensive knowledge of a subject ; there is absolutely no other way by which to enforce due attention on the part of both teachers and pupils to this all-important part of their work. Nor is even this all. The process of learning is not complete until the pupil can apply his knowledge in some practical way. The learning of a y principle or rule in arithmetic is useless, until the pupil can apply it to the ' ^ solution of problems. The study of the facts of form is of comparatively little value, unless the scholar can give them concrete expression with his own hands. The memorizing of the rules and definitions of grammar is so much . ; time almost wasted, unless the scholar can apply them in the criticism of his ^ own language, both oral and written, and in the elucidation of difficult and obscure passages in what he reads. These are elementary truths which I should have to apologize for stating were it not for their bearing upon this discussion. Examination consists not merely in reproducing knowledge im- / ^ parted or acquired, but in making practical application of knowledge, in test- | ing power and skill. And hence on this ground also — the ground of practical 1 application as well as that of reproduction — examination, seeing that it is not only a test of application and reproduction, but an exercise in application

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THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

and a means of the development of power and skill, must be regarded ag an element of teaching what is good. And if it is an element of teaching what is good, it has a right to its legitimate place and function in any and every system of education. In the words of Mr. Fitch, " Examining is a part of . teaching, and is indispensable to it." Examination is not merely a test of

X knowledge, power, and skill: it is a means of acquiring knowledge, power, and skill.

Examinations, however, when wisely used may be made to serve other pur- poses than those of exercise in reproducing knowledge and of testing and ac- quiring power and skill. Xhey may serve also_^ both a standard_and a

7^ ^thniilus. Particularly is this true of the comprehensive or stated examina- tion. Such an examination is the surest preventive of that loose and desultory teaching which is sure to demoralize the intellectual habits of the average student. The habit of mind we should aim to cultivate is that which in the affairs of life enables a man to see clearly the end to be accomplished, and to take with honesty and firmness of purpose the path that leads most directly to its accomplishment. In every branch of study the cultivation of this habit is a thing to be kept ever in view. Every time the teacher wanders, or allows his pupils to wander, from the straight path that must be pursued to master a subject, he fosters the formation of habits of fickleness in purpose and de- sultoriness in action, he dulls the power of steady intellectual vision. Now it is only teachei*s of the highest order, of whom in the nature of things there can be but few, who can, without adventitious pressure, curb this propensity to wander; and, as the comprehensive examination, when properly conducted and given in its proper place, is the most powerful of all adventitious in- fluences, it follows that its use as a standard in a system of graded schools is indispensable.

Even by teachers of the highest order, the influence of the comprehensive examination is not to be despised, especially when it is conducted by an ex- ternal j,uthority. Even that rara avis, the born teacher, will work all the better if he is enabled, or compelled, to compare his own with another ideal. Mr. Fitch has put this phase of the argument so well that I feel constrained to adopt his language as my own : " The teacher knows well enough how nearly his ideal has been reached ; but he does not know, and cannot know, w^hether that ideal is the highest attainable, and how it compares with that which is attained by other teachers and under other conditions. There is an inevitable narrowness of vision produced by daily observation of the same little group of minds. Details are seen in more or less false perspective. The progress of to-day is compared with that of yesterday, and the larger view of the progress that ought to be made, and which might be made, from year to year, becomes more and more difficult in proportion to the very zeal and ear- nestness with which the teacher watches the every-day work of his scholars. He cannot put himself into the position of complete detachment. He wants to see his work as others see it. He wants an honest comparison to be made

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EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS FOB PBOMOTION. 5

of his own performances with those of othei-s, and to be assured that what he is doing does not fall short of the standard which is generally reached by good teachers in similar conditions ; and even if the teacher did not himself feel this distrust, the public would feel it for him. Lord Sherbrooke puts the case with an irreverent but characteristic plainness when he says he does not like to leave tradei-s to 'brand their own herrings.'"

Let no one take offense at this last statement. We are all public servants, and the public whom we serve have a right to apply tests to our work and estimate its value. No branch of the public service can be administered just as a private business is managed. Why ? Because the proprietor of a private business has a natural and legal right to manage his affairs in the way that suits him best. But in the public service the very first condition of success, is the sympathy and support of the public. Without such sympathy and sup- port those who are immediately concerned in administering the public schools cannot hope to accomplish their perfect work. Without such sympathy and support the conscientious teacher is sure to be overwhelmed by the malign and abhorrent forces that are ever seeking to use the public schools for their own selfish and wicked purposes. Nothing that can create and preserve public sympathy and support for the public schools can be without its effect for good. The comprehensive examination, when conducted by one who is not imme- diately engaged in the work of class-teaching, and who is responsible to the State alone, is the best means of informing the public how far the work of the teacher is honest and successful.

All examinations, then, but particularly the comprehensive examinations, may be regarded as establishing a standard at which both teacher and pupil may aim, and a standard by which the public may judge of both teacher's and pupil's work.

But again, all examination, and particularly the comprehensive examina- ( tion, is useful not only as an exercise, as a test, and as a standard, but also as \ a stimulus. Competition has been one of the mightiest forces in the evolution of civilization. In one form or another it is competition, under God's laws, z^- that has raised man from being a little higher than the brutes to being a little lower than the angels. Many forms of competition that once played a promi- 1 nent part in determining what types were fittest to survive, have now disap- ; peared, or are disappearing from among civilized men. Among them, let us hope, is that form which leads a student to work only that he may surpass (^ others — a form which leads to envy, malice, dishonesty, and distrust. But there is still room, and, so long as men are imperfect, there will always be room, for that form of competition which leads each to strive, not to surpass others, but to equal the best and highest. Equality in excellence, not supe- riority, is a healthy motive for endeavor, and if examinations when properly conducted can; be made to serve as a stimulus to this motive, their existence \ is amply justified.

It may be objected that knowledge and culture should be pursued for their

6 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

own sakes. This is very true. They should be so pursued. But then they are not. With the great majority of men and women the love of scientific knowledge and of culture is an acquired taste. Those who proclaim most loudly the doctrine of the self-sufficiency of education, both as an object and as a stimulus, forget that if their contentions were founded upon fact, the ar- gument for the maintenance of a State system of education would be robbed of its validity. Why does the State maintain public schools? Because the desire for education, a thing necessary to the very existence of free govern- ment, does not exist originally in the majority of minds. If it did exist, uni- versally, as, for instance, the craving for food exists, there would be no more excuse for the State providing education for the masses than there is now for the State providing food for the masses. Our whole public-school system is predicated on the assumption that the desire for education is not universally present. The necessity for the stimulus afforded by examination is demon- strated by the very same reasoning. The desire for training is not indi- genous. It is an exotic as well as a plant of slow growth. The necessary mental habit is formed only, except in rare exceptions, under the influence of various stimuli, one of the most potential of which is examination.

Let us now consider some of the objections of those who are opposed to ex-

'^ amination. Parenthetically, it may be said that these objections are urged chiefly, if not exclusively, against the comprehensive, or stated examination. It would be well, however, for the objectors to remember that their objections apply with equal force to the review examinations, though the propriety of the latter is doubted by none.

[ The first objection is that the highest kind of teaching defies all test. As

, President Adams puts it: "Above all, things it [education] means the awak- j\ ening and developing of certain desires that will go w^ell with the pupil as a

\J kind of perpetual inspiration through life." To test this higher kind of teach- ing, examination utterly fails. But, though it fails at this point, is that any reason why it should not be used for the purpose for which it is preeminently fitted, namely, to test the acquisition of knowledge and the development of power and skill? We might as well say that we should not use cross-exam- ination in a court of law to test the veracity of a witness because it may not reveal whether a man is a poet or a philosopher. y ^ Again, examinations, it is said, lead to cramming with all its attendant evils.

The case against examinations from this point of view, has never been more I strongly stated than by President Adams : "A bird put into a dark room and

\ stuffed with food by main force, will at once develop enormous digestive organs,

\ and take on fat at an unnaturally rapid rate. But it can hardly be claimed that this is a process of healthy growth. It is abnormal, and it tends to weakness rather than strength; but it is entirely analogous to the processes of cramming for examinations that sometimes prevail. The one c;ise is a gorging of the mind for the purpose of getmigitiiito a certain condition for the emer- gency of an examination, much as the other is a gorging of the body in order

EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS FOB PBOMOTION. 7

to bring it into a certain condition, let us say for a Christmas or a Thanksgiving dinner."

The apparently tremendous force of this striking analogy is broken to the discerning eye by the presence of the word sometimes. "The processes of cramming for examinations that sometimes prevail " ! Not universally, not even frequently, but only sometimes. Were we to admit President Adams's major premise, namely, that all educational processes which are sometimes injurious -should be abolished, w^e could not avoid the conclusion that examinations ought to be abolished. But we cannot admit that everything that is some- times injurious, or injurious only to some pupils, ought to be abolished. The I ^ processes that are adapted to the w^elfare of the greatest number are the pro- | cesses that must be employed in the class-room. The fact that a process is sometimes injurious is an argument only in favor of excepting from the opera- tion those to whom it is found to be injurious.

Then, again, the word cram is ambiguous. If it means simply learning words by rote, in the hope of passing an examination, the effect is undoubt- C^ edly evil. But if it means the rapid review before an examination of a sub- ject already studied, if it means even the rapid study of a subject, entirely new, provided the study is done intelligently, the practice is not objectionable. /O Indeed, the pow^r of getting ready quickly, of summoning all one's resources, / at a time not of one's choosing, is an admirable and a necessary preparation | for life. The lawyer is obliged to " cram " for the trial of a case ; the clergy- man, for his sermon ; even the college professor, for his lecture. That there is ^ cramming, in the woret sense of the word, in many schools and classes, no one doubts; but that all immediate preparation for examination deserves to be characterized by that name, is absurd. The abuse of a thing otherwise good, can never be an argument against its proper use.

There is one kind of preparation for an examination which has excited the 3 utmost vigor of denunciation on the part of the critics ; namely, the use of ) former examination questions in class-w^ork. But here again the question seems to be between abuse and proper use. If nothing of a subject is taught but the answers to a few cut-and-dried questions, in the hope that they may be repeated at the next examination, we have perhaps the worst of all cases of cramming. But if, after a subject has been well taught, a review is con- ducted by means of questions, whether new or old, there can be no possible objection to the process. Whether it is abused or not depends on whether answering the questions precedes or follows the teaching of the subject. Again, the abuse of a method is no argument against its proper use..

Another serious objection urged against examinations is, that they produce i a continual mental strain, which so affects the nervous system as to seriously injure both mind and body. In many cases excellent ground has been given i^ for bringing this charge. But this is where examinations are too frequent and too severe, and w^here children of a highly-wrought nervous temperament

8 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

are not excepted from their operation. Again, the abuse of a thing may not be used as an argument against its proper use.

Another argument against examinations, and particularly against the stated examination, is that they rob teachers of originality and independence, and keep them in grooves or ruts. This is one of the heaviest indictments against examinations, and it might as well be admitted at once that, in innumerable instances, it has been proven true. It is, however, only another instance of the abuse, not the proper use, of examinations. In the first place, it does not . apply at all to the daily examination, except where a system of daily mark- ing is used. In the second place, it cannot apply to the review examination, where the questions are prepared by the class-teacher. And, in the third place, it will not hold against the stated examination, where the questions for such an examination are prepared on philosophic principles. And, lastly, as I have already explained, under the head of standard, the poorest and the best of teachei-s alike need a standard toward which to work. Even Dr. White ad- mits that there is nothing like a good, square written examination to rouse .some schools and teachers from the Eip Van Winkle sleep into which they are prone to fall. And, provided it is properly conducted, there is nothing like a good, square written examination to keep them from falling into such a sleep again.

But examination is an edged tool. It must be carefully handled. Its un- skillful employment has introduced untold evil into school-work. It has fostered cramming of the worst kind; it has injured the nervous systems of thousands of children ; it has robbed teachers of their individuality, and it has produced teaching that is formal, mechanical, and lifeless.

The indictment is a heavy one. And yet I am firmly convinced that all three kinds of examination — the daily examination, the review examination, and the stated examination — are necessary, not only as elements of teaching, but also to determine promotions. Children, if they are to learn in any \ proper sense of the term, must apprehend details and principles, they must apply their knowledge practically, and they must, before they get through with a subject, comprehend it as a whole with the relations of all its parts. J In a system of graded schools all three ways of learning must be tested or ex- amined in order to determine promotion. But how can this be done without involving the evils which I have enumerated ? Apprehension and applica- tion jraJio, be tested by the daily examination and the review. And yet I have known many instances where the worst evils of examination — the press- ure on the nervous system, cramming, and mechanical teaching — have been generated and fostered by both the daily recitation and the weekly or monthly review. In the case of the daily examination the fact was due almost entirely to the plan of niarking the answer to each question. In the first ^ace. the plan is preeminently unjust. In a large class each pupil may be given but a single question. He may get the only question the answer to which he knows^

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EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS FOB PBOMOTION. 9

and so receive a perfect mark when he really deserves zero. Another may / get the only question the answer to w^hich he does not know, and so receive a mark of failure where he really deserved a very high mark. In the second ,place, marking and teaching at the same time are incompatible. If a teacher gives his whole mind to the work in hand, he has no thought to spare for marking. If he subtracts from the sum-total of his mental energy the amount needed to form, during the lesson, a judgment on the work of each individual ^ pupil, the value of his teaching is by so much diminished. If he takes time after the lesson, time is wasted. Thus the plan results both in dissipation of energy and waste of time. Thirdly, such a system of marking tends to fos- ter that worst of all methods of teaching, according to which the teacher stands book in hand before his class, and hears recited the lessons that were learned overnight. Such a system of marking is the fit concomitant of such a system of teaching.

Again, all the worst evils that follow in the train of examinations may be found in connection with the review examination; particularly when the principal or superintendent insists upon making all the questions. These evils may, however, be obviated by having the questions prepared jointly by the class-teacher and the supervisor ; by making them consist in due propor- tion of questions testing knowledge and of applications of such knowledge, and by dispensing altogether with numerical marking. Let the pupils under- stand that there are to be no per cents, made out ; that there is to be no strife as to which stands highest ; that the sole object of the examination is to test the fidelity and industry with which they have done their work, to exercise them in reproducing in their own words or acts what they have learned, and to discover their power and skill. When this is done, all temptation to cramming and dishonesty will disappear, children will look upon examination simply as a means of discovering their own weakness and strength, while the nervous strain will be largely diminished.

But how, if there are to be no daily marks and no per cents, for the reviews, are the pupils' standings to be determined ? Some way must be devised to decide who are fit for promotion and who are not fit. The most simple and rational method yet devised is the monthly estimate by the teacher. As Dr. White has well said, the teacher who cannot at the end of a month form a reasonably correct estimate as to whether a child deserves or does not deserve to be promoted, is to be pitied if not retired, The objections urged against this system of marking are two: 1. In large systems there are always to be found some inefiicient teachers whose estimates cannot be depended upon; and, 2d, even among capable teachers there is a great lack of uniformity of standard, some marking much higher than othei's for the same or similar attainments. As to the utterly inefiicient teachers, their number is probably very much over-estimated ; and in all such cases the principal or other super- visor must stand ready to correct the defects of the work. The second diffi- culty is not of so great moment, because what we want to determine is only

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10 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION,

this : who have and who have not done well enough to merit promotion, sup- posing promotion to take place the next day. Beginning at the lowest, those who do not merit promotion, it is not difficult to divide the remainder into, say, three classes — excellent, very good, and good. Teachers who have tried the plan find that it works well, and doubtless with increased experience better plans of arriving at estimates will be devised.

Besides preventing the evils that too frequently flow from examinations, the estimate plan has this other transcendent merit: it compels the 'teacher to think of each pupil, to study his peculiarities, and to seek the training neces- sary to correct his faults or develop his faculties. The great fault of the public- school system is that it educates en masse, by wholesale, and does not attend sufficiently to individual j^eculiarities. The estimate system wherever it has been given a fair trial is already beginning to act as a counter-irritant.

This estimate, by the teacher, of the pupil's apprehension and application, or in other words, of his assimilation of knowledge on the one hand and the development of power and skill on the other hand, is the only thing to be considered in making promotions from grade to grade. The setting-up of the numerical results of a principal's or superintendent's examination on the work of the term as of superior value to this estimate, is an absurdity which is fast disappearing from educational administration. Such examinations lead di- rectly to all of the evils I have endeavored to point out, and have probably done more, particularly where given to very young children, to produce nerv- ous disorders, than all other causes combined.

Vhere, then, is the place for the comprehensive, or stated, examination ? rom the very nature of the exercise it can have but one place, namely, wherever the study of a subject is completed. If it is completed at the end of the grammar-school course, that is its place. If it is completed at the end \ of the seventh year, that is its place ; and so on. And all of these examina- tions should count for graduation and entrance to the high_school. Such an examination should be the standard toward which all, both teachers and pu- pils, should work. Such an examination should be an important test of the quality of the work not merely of the graduating teacher but of thej:eachers of the lower grades. Such an examination should test not only the knowledge, but the power and the skill, of the pupils. Such an examination, if wisely and honestly conducted, is the standard by which the public will judge of the work of the schools.

Educators will work out the many problems involved in this momentous question in different ways according to their environment. It is the last sub- ject on which anyone should attempt to dogmatize, because there is no other with regard to which we have made so many mistakes. What is needed more than anything else is bold experiment, and careful observation of results. Our attitude should always be that of Chaucer's Oxford Clerk : " Gladly would he learn, and gladly teach."

Our aim should be to accomplish results with the smallest possible expend-

EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS FOB PROMOTION. 11

iture of nerv^ous force on the part of both teacher and pupilj; to give the teacher all possible freedom within certain limits; to judge of intellectual work'" by intellectual, not mechanical, tests ; and to train our children to move for- ward, not like an army at the word of command, every soldier drilled to the/ exact similitude of every other soldier, not like the cataract, beautiful, but tu- multuous and destructive, bilt like a flock of swallows, rejoicing in their liberty and ever flying to the promised land.

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NRLF PHOTOCOPY MAR 3 r89

JUL 3 1 1998 APR 2 B Lm\

FEB 1 0 2005

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