The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-05-06
RATIONAL EDUCATION.

On a discussion Of examinations.
grades and credits. as applied to edu-
cationaI institutions, Professor McKeen
Cattell of Columbia says some pertinent
things about the value Of written tests.
In his opinion Il would be about as
scientific 20 select a wife by written
examination as to determine what stu
dents are fitted for a college course by
that method. Requiring all students
10 pass an examination in Latin compO-
sition and the like" he says, 'is as out
OF place in a modern university as an
ichthyOsaurUs on BROADWAY"
He might have added that-written ex-
aminations as a final and conclusive
test of ability in any direction are
usually inimicaI TO originality and in
dividuality; and the student who exceIs
in written tests is quite as apt to be
limited in capacity for achievement as
the boy VINO stumbles over the forms
and Memories which form so large a
part Of what its promoters are pleased
to call systematic" education.
The value Of any test is in the seIec-
ton OF all those students who are fit
to have an education and the eIimina-
tion Of the unfit. The Germans. who
are Journalists above all else, are con-
tent to let the recommendation of the
school determine what students are
qualified for advancement; we Aueri-
cans insist on examinations, except
where some school is AFFILIATED with the
university and the preparatory school
itself uses the written test. which
is the basic form of the American sys-
tenn.
The result is a cut-and-dried system
which begins at the top and extends
downward TO the primary schools, de-
moralizing teacher and pupil alike, COM
peiling the public schools To attempt
impOssibilities in order that the small
percentage Of pupils who look forward
TO the university may say they have
done the work required for admittance-
The high school is loaded up with uu-
necessary and excessive studies TO meet
the university's demand; the grade
school is saddled with useless matter
and multiplied studies in order that
grade pupils may enter a high school
which can in turn fit them for a uni
versity; and so on down the line.
Written tests are used TO determine
pupils standing-not his alertness
of mind, his originality Of thought. his
capacity to grasp fundamental prfnci-
ples-and the result IS a mass of half
baked intellects, crammed with half
learned routine facts. much as sausage
is run through a machine.
Salt Lake is no exception to the prsc-
tice, not because it is anybody's fault.
but because Salt Lake has to turn OUT
students who may, il they wish. enter
college without undue difficulty. That
IS TO say, the entire school system has
been modelled for the supposed benefit
OF the very, very few students who may
have the time or means to secure a. uni
versity education. The system is everv-
thing, the individual nothing under the
plan adopted. 4 teacher who should
presume TO depart from the System"
laid down by the authorities. and at
tempt to develop her students along
individual lines, might earn the undv-
ing gratitude Of their parents, but she
could not hold her place through one
term If an inspector caught her at her
nefaTiOUs work.
Happily. the pendulum is beginning to
swing toward the other extreme. The
method which subOrdinates thought TO
routine. the accomplishment Of a set
amount OF work to the training of 2
mind, is so absurd that educators are
beginning TO realize its futiIIty. With
in a decade. there will be a revolution.
not only in the public school method
but in the requirements for admission
TO universities, which viii classify stu
dents according to their brains and
character, not according to the num-
Der Of pages of certain textbooks they
have gone over. There VIII be some
attention TO the cultivation OF thiukiur
power and less to the particular set
method by which this power is deveT-
oped; and the day cannot come soon
enough to satisfy those progressive cit
izens who value results more than they
do forms.