Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-12-29
SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

We will say a word or two about
school examinations, and, for the
present, orr remarks will apply to
the grade and not to the high school.
You may have noticed th, teachers
trudging homeward, or schcolward,
carrying great bundles of papers.
Stop one Of them and ask what she
is carrying and the answer comes,
with suggestive yawn. "examina-
ton papers," Further inquiry re-
.eals the fact that pupils in the
,ower grades write all their work
The poor teacher must carry this
mass OF nonsense home and spend
many weary hours in determining its
percentage of incorrectness; and or
this the standing" Of each pupil is
Ssiyen. And all this, mind you, Is not
done on the motion. Of any one teaah.''
er but comes as an order in the
printed course Of study approved .or
adopted by the school board.
In high school work there may be
fairly good reason for this method;
ut in the lower grades there l..
lothing more pernieious or ridiculous
f spelling writing tablets and whie-
ling lead pencils induce thought,
Expand or quicken the mental pro
cesses, why then the more tablets
hey could spoil and the more pen,
lls they could whittle away the be-.
ter for all concerned. But, alas, spoil
ing paper by the ream and using PEN
ills by the gross do not encourase
thought or stimulate reason. The
shild's mind needs training impartee
| y mature minds. 1t must te taught
determine why and the where ,
lore Of each step in its move from.
Ipoint to point and to trace each eff
,ect to its efficient cause. II this. is
leglected. II the child is hurried
along with only haay conceptions OF
what 1t is doing-or trying to do-it
Twill meet later and harder tesks IL
which It's lack of proper early train.
ling will fill It with shame and en-
barrassment.
There are children, attending the
schools Of the country, who are
;cribbling their way through fra
lions and compound numbers VIII
would be "stumped" by the simp
est oral exercise. Give them th'
sue as to how the work is done, ant
they can gure it out on paper likt
a broker figuring his profits. Yo'
4 can develop parrots and copyists %
4 Dads and pencils but thinking is =
nental process and must be deyeloI
ed independently from forms fo
the eye to follow or for the hand Il
trace.
The school boards would promot
the cause of education If they woul
place The. writing pad and pencil ur
der their official ban. They Nigh
: be tolerated in language work; an
at the end of each term, to make
record Of each pupils work. flu
written examination might be advis
able; but the daily grind of write
work by little boys and girls shoul
be positively forbidden. This woul
save the teachers all that worry an
care of looking over papers," paper
THAT absolutely furnish no insight t
the pupils mental grasp Or advance
ment, and leave them fresh an
ready to put their pupils through a
oral drill that is now almost entire
ly neglectea,
] All this may not be in accord wit
a the new idea" in teaching or, to us
another new term, pedagogy. B,
! pedagogy cannot give the human ra'
a new intellect. Lord Baeop's era,
admirers thought he did, but IL
) same mental faculties existed
. Plato's time that exist today, but
e, your modern pedagogy does not p,
= more dependence on tongue and mil
and less on pulp pads and lead pc
ellis, we may eventually develop {
? intellect Of the wood pnlp variety
Willtamabnrg Journal Tabpns.