The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-04-06
He SCORES EXAMINATIONS
WILLIAM AAWLEY SMITH BE-
RATES PRESENT SYSTEM.
HE WILL NOT BE IN NORFOLK
Famous Lecturer Who Has Spoken
Here Several Times at Teachers
Meetings, Was in Lincoln and Tore
Present Examinations to Shreds.

Meetings, Was in Lincoln and Tore
Present Examinations to Shreds.
william Hawley Smith, who has lee.
tured to delighted audiences at for
mer meetings of the northern Nebras-
ka teachers in Norfolk. will not be
present for the association meetings
this year but he is in Nebraska. Yes.
terday he was in Lincoln, calling on
State Superintendent McBrien, and
during his visit, Mr.. Smith delivered
lecture on the present method of ex'
aminations which fairly sizzles in its
emphatic roast" for present day
modes. The State Journal, concern
ing the talk, says:
William Hawley Smith, The noted
educator and lecturer, sat In the Office
of State Superintendent ]. l.. McBrien,
and speaking to group of educators,
tore to shreds the examination system
which teachers, lawyers and physicians
have worked so hard to legali2e and
make part of the law of the various
states. Some of the men he addressed
mittee provided for by the new law
regulating the issuance of certificates
to teachers. Mr.. Smith has been lee
turing at junior state normal schools
and educational meetings in Nebraska,
and had stopped in Lincoln to visit
State Superintendent McBrien.
I'VE wear our lives away" said Mr..
Smith, "cramming our heads with stun
for examinations. A teacher may
write an excellent examination paper,
and yet not know the first principles
of teaching or dealing with children.
College students are turned out to
teach upon graduation. Business men
don't do things that way and the busi-
ness men of this country have more
sense than all the teachers and preach
ers. A student may work four years
building engines, and all the equip
ment that goes into train of cars and
running dummy engines, yet when he
goes to a railroad company and asks
for a job, do they give it to him be-
cause he needs the money? II he gets
a job is he sent out on the road with
an engine? No; he is put in the round
house, wiping engines. If the road
makes an engineer in seven years it
will consent to give him an engine in
three years, if he shows ability and
merit.
could pass an examination in this
state for a teachers certificate? |
could notp ass one corner of it. For
instance, in history you might ask me
any one of 100000 dates and I could
not give the correct answer.
"The schools are the outgrowth OF
church. Some of the oldest colleges
in existence are church colleges. The
church is run by guess and by God.
AS a business organization it ranks
very low. Do not misunderstood me.
have veneration and respect for the
church. l am member of it.
Greek and Latin are not educative
in themselves. No study is educative
of itself. We merely learn to use books
in school, to manipulate books. The
old method of memorizing comes
down from the time when there were
no books to use. The time will come
when you examiners, instead of re-
ceiving written papers, will go out and
see the teacher teach. The time will
come when one examination will do
for a lifetime The time will come
when the person who comes fresh
from school, who does not know any
more about the child than the man in
the moon, will not be given charge of
its immortal soul as they now are. 1t
may be a thousand years, but it will
come: there is no hurry.
There is no aristocracy in learning
any more than there is in anything |
else. No set of men has a right to set |
themselves up as the judges of what
other people shall do. We must take
the whole mass and churn it up and |
take the result. The divine level in |
intelligence is what counts and that
level will continue to rise.
"One of the wonders of the age is |
what we have done in the Philippines.
We take fifteen hundred children |
there representing forty-two different |
languages, and in six months we have |
them singing the Star Spangled Ban
ner' to beat the band. But what has |
been done there is nothing to the pos
sibilities still unknown"
The Elective Course Of Study.
Speaking of the introduction of the
elective system in the Galesburg, ILL.,,
schools, Mr.. Smith dictated the fol-
lowing:
six years ago they adopted a
strictly elective course of study. They
abandoned all former courses what
ever. After my talk there the board
asked the city superintendent to let
them know what percentage of the
children who entered the high school
dropped out at the end of the first
year. The investigation showed that
on an average of ten years GO per cent
of the pupils dropped out of the high .
at and Of tho fret