The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-06-01
Your Children
By Olive Roberts Barton

Are examinations for passing" right or wrong2 Are schools discov- ering that strain and resultant emotional scars from failure to make good, are ofksetting the good of a goal to strive for and the sat- isfaction of accomplishment
 Indeed they are, and now we have in most modern centers the plan that includes other things besides marks in judging the childs fitness to proceed; for example, ap- piication, earnestnegs, promptness and general mental qualification.
 What educators dread today is the very bright youngster, as well as his slower brother or sister. There is the one who grasps leS- sons 50 quickly that he can do two grades in the same time others take for one.
 Slow and Bright Suffer
 Today 1t is believed wise to give him his chance because once he be. comes bored with hurndrum repiti- tion, he loses incentive and may develop g listlessness to all studies. But to let him go ahead with other children older than himself, chil- dren with more advanced interests and outside experience, leaves him almost as badly of as every. That is the problem that worries school authorities.
 And the same reason holds good for ret0rding the slower child. It may be to his best interest to take grade over again. Perhaps he has been i'll for Q period, or has been doing grade work less suited to his perceptions, as happens sometimes. Or he may merely have developed certain mental confusion to all study that makes 1t necessary to straighten him out. In all kindness this is often the wisest thing to do. But he will not it in quite as well with the children, generally speak, ing, because they will be just enough younger to make him feel out of 1t. This leads to unhappi- ness and loneliness. Not in all cases, of course, but it is common enough to give the teachers and principals pause.
 Avoid Pushing Student
 Many systems of promoting have been tried out. Experiments have covered much ground. Tn some in- stances schools did away with writ ten finals only to resume them, deciding that they were necessary if only to discover mental quality, Independent of actual facts and knowledge. Besides 1t was quite evil dent that some children, without the idea of tests ahead, were sol- diering sadly on daily work. And say as we like about the harm of competition on the whole most children like 1t. And what a feather in their caps to pass"
 Thus 1t stands today. Some schools have hesitated to change their system of examinations until something definite has been ap- proved and adopted. Others have reached the stage where examina- tions are given but used as guides to future place rather than au- thority. In cities where there are enough to draw from, there are special classes for the unusual; the gifted, the slow, or those who are out of line with routine studies but normal in another way.
 I believe the final examination in some of it's forms will stand. Not alone, as it used to, but as a center around which to group the child's other assets. One thing that parents should remember is never to put Q boy or girl on too much mental strain at the time by reInarking that he had better pass, or be punished"
 (Copyrisht, 1OSe, NEA Service. Incl