The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1914-08-21
Examinations.

EAdHllNdtlOHS.
This paper, prepared by Miss Amy
R. Kendall, assistant principal of thu
Crescent City high school, was reac
at the Putnam County Teachers Insti
tute in Palatka last week:
Mr.. Hamilton Holt, in recent ar.
ticle on the problems of a New Eng.
land High School, says that the oh.
ject Of the school is to prepare the
students to take college entrance ey-
aminations which about two per cent
take. | understand that in the minds
Of some the object Of the Florida
schools is to prepare for the county
teachers examinations. Last fall in
a county teachers meeting the Super
intendent was conducting a question
aire on what to omit from the course
of study in Arithmetic. The subjects
under discussion are taken in the fifth
or sixth grade and the teachers were
opposed to any omission, and for what
reason? Because the child would
need the information in the next
grade? No. Because he would need
it when he left school? No. Mental
discipline? No. But because he would
need it in the teachers examination.
That is, one half Of one per cent might
need it at the end of ten years.
Granted then, that the object of the
schools is to prepare for the teachers
examination, our problem is very SIM
pie. The promotion of the child
should depend on the grade of
the examination at the end of
the year. If he falls 2-15 of one
per cent below passing, do not
promote him. Grade on the num-
Der of pages covered rather than on
the excellence of work, fifteen pages
being better examination paper than
ten. The ideal paper would be one
that is as exhaustive and as exhaust
ing as possible. The child should
take three or four hours to write it.
If necessary, serve beef tea in the
middle of the period as is done at
Radcliffe College. Refuse to accept
a paper on which the child has spent
only two hours. Make more than
half the questions on the work of the
year before. The child will find it
more difficult and the teacher will
have someone to blame for poor work.
If the first day the child receives 100
per cent, the next 80, the next 80, the
next 70, and cannot take them at all
on the fifth day, say, "well done-that
child may be ready for the goal" If
these suggestions are carefully fol-
lowed for ten years, our one half of
one per cent will be prepared for life's
task. The majority Of the other nine
ty-nine and half per cent will leave
school, thus saving the teachers trou-
BILE. The few who stay will have
some facts which they can reproduce
in times of great need.
On the other hand, a teacher in one
of the largest schools in the country
has told me that the pupils in her
school seem to feel that the object OF
attending school was to say few
words, whether they understood them
or not, and get mark for it. If this
standpoint of the pupil is correct
one, examinations have no place in
the course, and so we need not consid-
er them.
There is a third type of school to
which l am sure the schools of Put
nam County belong. | refer to those
where the object is to train the chill
dren for citizenship, where they are
trained in the great principles of law
truth. life; where they are given a
"oital of standards, facts, ideals, fan.
cies; where they become well rounded
men and women; where nothing Is
done for show, for looks, and for APP
pearances, but every thing is done fol
the childs advancement in learning
growth of character, and the building
IN of sound bodies. l feel that the
examination has its place in such 4
school, only it should be a test not a
formal examination. The trouble
with the true examination is that it is
eXhausting to the teacher and to the
| scholar. 1t is not fair test of the
child's knowledge. The pupils cram
for it beforehand, feel that they have
no further use for the facts covered
by the paper, and so dismiss the IN
formation gained from their minds
The examination system in many cas-
es encourages dishonesty, and the
child is often in such nervous state
that he is afterwards surprised a
the answers he himself has written:
The object of test is to establish
a few facts and to aid the child tt
keep up-with the class. In my owl
case | plan to give at least one ties
in every subject once month. l dt
not feel that l am neglecting my du
ties if the tests do not come Just fou
weeks apart, but | have them at tn
end of natural division of a sub
iect. | give most of the questions OF
the main topic, few review question
on the former related topics, and on
or two questions on some topic that /
very important or that has presente'
especial difficulty. If we have JUS
studied the Intercolonial Wars,
would give questions on the Frenc
settlement of America, on the cause
of the French and the Englis
settlements, on the relation of the col
onies with the Indians, on the rela
ton of England and France in Europe
as well as on the wars. | make matt
ematics the exception of the MONTH
test and give test every Monda
morning. I take Monday as the chi
dren generally leave their wits at HON
and so it is a poor day to begin me-
topic If they understand a prime
pie then, l feel surer it is establishe
than if they seem to understand it o
Friday.
The children know that a test ma
be given any day, on any subject. an
on any phase of the subject. The
thus keep the facts in mind and fe,
that everything they learn is to /
/ remembered. I sometimes tell the
, they will have a test for the next lie
| son, if l wish them to carefully r,
view the subject, but l usually do M
, In this way l avoid examining and Il
nervous condition that many childre
are in the night before an examin
ton.
The children like my plan of fir
A ouent tests. They say that they fiji
+ it much easier to keep up the wor