The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-01-06
THE ABUSE OF EXAMINATIONS.


A large number of leading English ed
ncators and men eminent in science and
letters lately signed a protest against
the current system of university exami-
nations. An English university is not
precisely the same sort of institution as
the American public school, its methods
differing In many respects; but the pur-
pose CT both is the same, namely, to ed
ucate. In carrying out this purpose, it
appears that the same obstacle has been
allowed to intervene in both cases. Prof.
Max Muller, writing in the Nineteenth
Century of the system of examinations
which has come into vogue at Oxford
and Cambridge, says that formerly some
of his young friends were what is now
called idle, but out of their hours of
idleness, which meant discursive read
ing and thinking, they grew into some
thlng-they became different from others.
"Now," he says, 'my young friends
seem all alike, all equally excellent, but
so excellent you can hardly tell one
from the other.n The result is, as he
points out, that while England has many
excellent men in all professions and in
public life, the leaders, the intellectual
athletes are becoming few. "And, if
history teaches anything" he concludes,
cit teaches that no country remains
great without really great men; without
a few men different from the rest" Prof.
Edward A. Freeman, the historian,
considering the same subject, says:
"When examination after examination
becomes the main object, there is sure
to be great deal too much teaching, so
much as to leave no time for learning on
the part of teacher or pupil" Mr.. Fred
eric Harrison, the essayist, says: eek
animation, like so many other things, is
useful as long as it is spontaneous, Occa
sioual and simple. Its mischief begins
when it grows to be organized into
trade and the be-all and end-all of its
own sphere. The less the student is
prepared in the technical sense the bet
ter. The more free the examiner is to
use his own discretion with each exam
inee the more likely he is to examine
him fairly" And again, speaking of the
modern method: Success in examina-
tons means distinctions and prizes. And
whatever does not mean success in ex-
animation is not education. Parents,
governments, schools, colleges, univer-
sites and departments combine to slim
ulate the competitive examination and
the mark system. None quite like it,
but they all keep up the tarantula dance
needs must when the devil drives
The result is that the Frankensteinm mon
ster of examinations becoming the mon
ster of education.n All these criticisms
and much more to the same end by these
philosophical observers, though aimed
at the universities of England, are
equally applicable to the Ameri-
can common schools. These schools,
from the lowest to the high
est, are ruled and regulated by
examinations. The pupils are graded
not by what they may actually know,
but by the number of questions they can
answer according to the particular text
book in use. The standing of teachers
is rated, not by their breadth of learn
ing and power to stimulate the youthful
mind to inquiry and investigation, but
by the number of their pupils who can
pass the examinations. The system COM
pels a slavish adherence to textbooks
and methods, tends to intellectual mar
rowness on the part of teachers, hinders
hr IF fortn rfu nd x.1
atty in the pupils, and interferes with
the true purpose of the schools. As Pop
ular Science Monthly puts it:
The students one ambition-if he has
any at all-is TO pass an examination; the
teachers is TO get as many of his pupils as
possible TO pass as many examinations as
possible, and to these wretched ends the
whole work of the school is made sub
servient- There is no time allowed for re-
Fiction, or for the slow gathering of results;
none for the gathering Of wayside iliustra,
tions-an is hurry and press, strain and
stress, business from the start and bus
mess to the close. The result is
the all put complete extinction met OF
people do not learn to love knowl-
edge for it's own sake, for any sense of
mental enlargement that it confers, or for
any benefit that 1t enables them to bestow
on their fellows. They hardly have time,
indeed, to realize the difference between
what Is real and vital in knowledge and
what is mere outward husk or shell; and
they leave school in thousands with intelli-
gences blunted, rather than sharpened, and
we grieve still more to think-with moral
sensibilities dulled, rather than quickened,
by the routine to which they have been
subjected"
The question of school books and their
cost is just now disturbing the people of
this locality. tits well enough for iegis-
lators who have the financial interests of
the people in hand to consider this mat
ter carefully, and ADJUST it to the best OF
their power; but it is the duty of 6duca-