The Washington herald., 1908-01-27
Markings in Schools.

Editor The Washington Herald.
/ want 10 protest against an injustice
currently practiced here in the public
schools. IN the maner Of marking the
children's reports. For while to us
'grown-ups." who are busy proving our
ability and making our mark In the rough,
real world, an injustice in a chlld's rank
al school seems a very little thing to
bother about, to child school is the seri-
Gus business Of life, his world Of work
and the stage Of his ambitious struggles.
Is Il not the very object of report to
make the child and his parents take
school seriously. TO record the result OF
his efforts. so that ne will consider his
reputation In school worth while, feel
pride in his successes. and shame over his
failures? And the whole purpose of re-
port Is defeated If It is essentially unjust.
Injustice always rankles, but it is so IN
bearable to a sensitive child that it can
create a bitter indifference to all his
school work.
This is the point I wish 10 make The
school reports have a list Of the studies
covered in the eight grades. each study
having its own column 10 hold the month
ly marks in than study. There is column
for arithmetic. one for geography. &c. as
well as writing and spelling. Now, if a
child is given a set Of problems in arith-
metic TO work out and obtains the cor
rect answer to each, with the intermediate
work on his paper clearly showing that he
has evolved the answer fairly by himself,
he h.
feet in his arithmetic?
Is it fair. when the work before him Is
arithmetic, TO mark him less than perfect
because there are misspelled words. or
because the writing is poor, or because
his paper isn't neat? The misspelled
words can be checked against him on his
spelling average; the writing can be
marked down on his writing column, and
If he must be marked for neatness, espe-
cially in the lower grades. why, there
can be column for that purpose But
can any one hold that chld's mark IN
arithmetic is an honest record of what
he makes" IN arithmetic when anything
but his arithmetic work is considered in
the correcting Of his paper?
/ went 10 the public schools as a child
and 7 well recall the sense Of injustice l
suffered when, on a geography examina-
tion in which l answered all the questions
correctly, | was marked something less
than perfect because Of misspelled words
OF course, any one can see a certain JUS
tice in taking a little off a child's mark
for misspelled geographical words, as
some might justly consider them a part
Of his geography lessons. But to check
him on his geography papers because a
few words of his general vocabulary are
misspelled is a piece OF injustice that Is
hard TO conceive Of any one perpetrating
That was some time ago: however not
so long ago but that many of the same
teachers are still teaching in the grades.
and the same methods being practiced.
My little daughter informed me the
other day that her teacher said "she
would have gotten excellent on her num-
Der work (arithmetc), but that her paper
wasn't tidy enough She Is only in the
second grade, and so too young TO make
any personal criticism of her teacher or
to feel any injustice in her markings
She was Just quoting as a matter of in
terest what her teacher had said.
While the injustice is not so staring in
the first and second grades. where all the
work is more or less subservient to the
first necessity of teaching the child writ
ten expression, still even In the second
grade different work Is tabulated in sepa-
rate columns, and the arithmetic column
says "aEithmetic" and not arithmetic
and neatueSs. Now. what use is this
card to me? How can 1 tell whether she
actually does we'll IN the little problems
given her? The good" see on the card
might have been excellent but for a habit
of smudging her paper with ink-stained
little figures!
And boy friend Of mine brought to my
notice an example of the same absurdlty.
and this in the eighth grade. He told me
that he really loved arithmetic. but had
stopped bOthering about what he was
marked. i never can get perfect on my
papers, no matter what / really make.
he said, because they never are neat
enough
Now. | don't want to say that all the
teachers confuse the childrens workings
in this way; many have an irate sense of
Justice that would deter them from max
ing this mistake, even If the others did.
And | don't think Il Is done in the high
school But that there is a general tend