The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-14


for they test the memory and examining
capacity of the candidates 20 the exclusion
OF his general everyday power of reason
and understanding. and they are the sub
iimation of pedagogy run mad.
In our Judgment the present method of
competitive examinations is doomed to
an early death, both Ia our schools and
our politics. The common sense of the
world has long protested against COMPETE
tive examinations, but pedagogues. as dis
tinguished from born teachers, have chung
10 them with the persistence that always
characterizes persons who travel in the rut
OF the same small circle every day. The
gogy of England, has risen up in protest
against this vicious system of competitive
examinations, and among English schol-
ars who denounce it are Professor Max
Muller and Professor Edward Freeman, of
Oxford, Professor John Stuart Blackie,
Provost of the University of Edinburgh,
Sir Edwin Arnold, Frederic Harrison, and
Rev. DR.. James Martineau, besides nearly
four hundred other well known names,
peers, judges, authors, tutors and fellows
OF the great universities, the Church OF
England and non-conformist ministers,
lecturers, masters and mistresses Of
schools. members of school boards, and
even examiners.
One of the ablest teachers in America,
Anna c. Bracket. for many years has de-
nounced the examination system that has
wrought so much mischief in the selec-
ton of teachers in the schools of both
England and America. Mr.. Frederic Har-
rison, one of the finest scholars in Eng
land, points out that the vicious conse-
quence Of this examination system has
been the growth in both England and
America of class of professional exam
liners and as correlative class of profess
sional examiners, so that the system is de-
structive both of the teachers and of the
scholars. and education is becoming the
slave of its own creature and servant.
Among other things, Mr.. Harrison says:
Teachers are being slowly thrust out aud con-
trolled by the examiners. they in their turn are
checked and lodged at every turn by the cram
mers; so that learning is fast passing into the
-
Whons are teachers pretend to teach Art, learn
ing, politics and amusements are deluged
with shows, races. competitions and prizes.
Life is becoming one long scramble OF prize
winning and pot-hunting; and examination,
stereotyped into a trade, is having the same
effect ON education that the betting system has
on every healthy sport.
The test of teachers power to teach
well is not how much he remembers, for if
that was all any smart boy or girl fresh
from school might answer such questions,
probably with more accuracy than a man
entirely able to understand and to teach
who was not recently fresh from the
charge of a school and his Textbooks
Some men tell readily all they have learned
and a good deal more than they really
know with more glibness and assurance
than man who does not fuently and
with entire self-possession recite all his
learning, and yet never fails to under
stand b. mself thoroughly in action. The
workAof teacher is not confined to what
might be called expert ability; it involves
also largely administrative ability, tact,
control of temper. A good teacher is like
good shot; the test of it is the closeness
with which he can shoot at arms length,
at call, on sight; his practice. not his the
DRY of craftsmanship. The modern mode
of examination creates a class of fellows
who never can shoot except when they
shoot from a rest" and who come to
Creedmoor crammed with more learning
about craftsmanship than the man
who wins the shield. If learning was
the test, the man who knew most
about the rife theoretically would always
get the shield whether he shot well or not,
and the man who had made the most
"buu's-eye" hits would not get the shield,
would have nothing but his skill for his
pains. Mugwump Republican mer-
chant of New York City, who was praising
the system of competitive examinations
for appointments to the New York Gus
tom house, was handed list of the ques-
tons TO candidates, and asked to say how
many of them he could answer. He was
obliged to confess that he could answer
but very few Of them, and yet he was an
able, trained man Of business, of whose
capacity to fill any position in the custom
house, from that of collector down to
bookkeeper, inspector or appraiser, there
was not the slightest doubt