Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-12
THE ANEuA1 EXAMINATIONS


The letter of School Superintendent
Laudes en- the question of annual examine
tons in the public schools, which we
printed in our last issue, appears to US to
be in the main just and timely. The sole
rational justification of these examinations
would be that they really advanced the
scholars. If they do not DO that they are
at least super6uous. But Mr.. Landes has
made it very clear that, while they do not
have the one beneficial effect which could
alone warrant their continuance, they have
many effects which are directly evil. There
is no room for doubt as to the truth of the
assertion that they unsettle the minds of
the children, impose upon them a PERM.
cious system of examining, subject the
nervous and sensitive pupils to objec.
tionable pressure, permit indolent scholars
to achieve spurious records, break the
continuity of the school course and gener.
ally foster very bad tendency toward su.
perfcial and meretricious displays. There
is no sense in a system the main
purpose of which seems to be to put
all the children on exhibition once
year, and whoever has passed ex-
arninations of any kind must be aware
that they necessitate an amount of anxiety
examining, and nervousness the imposition
Of which upon children cannot but be harm
full to them. 1t is scarcely worth while to
consider their value as measures of progress,
for it has been too often demonstrated that
they are quite as likely as not to reverse
the natural order of things; to hold back
the really capable, and to give Fictitious
standing to the least studious. The effect
they have upon the teachers is probably but
little less injurious than that which they
exercise upon the children. They cause
the whole school course to be subordinated
to them Everything must be tested by
| it's relations to the annual examination.
The inevitable result is that desire grows
up among the teachers to get the best pos
sible showngs out of these examinations,
instead of desire to impart the most solid
and enduring education to the classes.
The failure of the annual examinations is
further demonstrated by the fact that
in many cases the children who have
passed them with credit prove to be
quite unfit for promotion subsequently.
This fact shows that as genuine registers
of genuine progress the examinations are
discredited, and nothing more should be
required to warrant their abolition.
Parents who pay proper attention to the
standing and progress of their children in
the schools must have discovered for them.
selves that the present system is extremely
defective. The fact is that promotion
should be based upon the term records and
the reports of the teachers taken together,
as Mr.. Landes suggests. We should then
have a practically reliable gauge of pro-
gress, and the scholars would, moreover,
be compelled to pay far closer attention to
their average standing, knowing, as they
would do, that there was no prospect of
redeeming neglected opportunities by any
hocus-pocus in scrambling examination.
Any system which tends to encourage or
necessitate examining is bad one, and that
the present one does this cannot be doubted.
In short, it seems to US that the weight of
argument is all against the examinations,
and that there is really no reasonable de-
Tense to be made for them.