« cram:' 



25 



a man really loves study and has genius in him, 

 he will find opportunities in after-life for indulg- 

 ing his peculiar tastes, and will not regret the 

 three or four years when his reading was severely 

 restricted to the lines of examination. Of course, 

 it is not desirable to force all minds through ex- 

 actly the same grooves, and the immense pre- 

 dominance formerly given to mathematics at Cam- 

 bridge could not be defended. But the schemes 

 of examination at all the principal universities 

 now offer many different branches in which dis- 

 tinction may be gained. 



The main difficulty which I see in the exami- 

 nation-system is that it makes the examiner the 

 director of education in place of the teacher, 

 whose liberty of instruction is certainly very much 

 curtailed. The teacher must teach with a con- 

 stant eye to the questions likely to be asked, if 

 he is to give his pupils a fair chance of success, 

 compared with others who are being specially 

 " crammed " for the purpose. It is true that the 

 teacher may himself be the examiner, but this 

 destroys the value of the examination as a test 

 or means of public selection. Much discussion 

 might be spent, were space available, upon the 

 question whether the teacher or the examiner is 

 the proper person to define the lines of study. No 

 doubt a teacher will generally teach best, and 

 with most satisfaction to himself, when he can 

 teach what he likes, and, in the case of university 

 professors or other teachers of great eminence, 

 any restriction upon their freedom may be unde- 

 sirable. But as a general rule examiners will be 

 more able men than teachers, and the lines of ex- 

 amination are laid down either by the joint judg- 

 ment of a board of eminent examiners, or by 

 authorities who only decide after much consul- 

 tation. The question, therefore, assumes this 

 shape : Whether a single teacher, guided only by 

 his own discretion, or whether a board of compe- 

 tent judges, is most to be trusted in selecting 

 profitable courses of study. 



Few have had better opportunity than I have 



enjoyed, both as teacher and examiner in philo- 

 sophical and economical subjects, of feeling the 

 difficulties connected with a system of examina- 

 tion in these subjects. Some of these difficulties 

 have been clearly expounded in the series of arti- 

 cles upon the state of philosophical study at the 

 different universities published in Mind. It is 

 hardly needful to refer to the excellent discussion 

 of the philosophical examination in the London 

 University by the editor in No. IV. I should not 

 venture to defend university examinations against 

 all the objections which may be brought against 

 them. My purpose is accomplished in attempt- 

 ing to show that examination is the most effective 

 way of enforcing a severe and definite training 

 upon the intellect, and of selecting those for high 

 position who show themselves best able to bear 

 this severe test. It is the popular cry against 

 " cram " that I have answered, and I will con- 

 clude by expressing my belief that any mode of 

 education which enables a candidate to take a 

 leading place in a severe and well-conducted open 

 examination must be a good system of education. 

 Name it what you like, but it is impossible to 

 deny that it calls forth intellectual, moral, and 

 even physical powers, which are proved by un- 

 questionable experience to fit men for the business 

 of life. 



This is what I hold to be education. We can- 

 not consider it the work of teachers to make 

 philosophers and scholars and geniuses of various 

 sorts ; these, like poets, are born, not made. Nor, 

 as I have shown, is it the business of the educa- 

 tor to impress indelibly upon the mind the useful 

 knowledge which is to guide the pupil through 

 life. This would be " cram " indeed. It is the 

 purpose of education so to exercise the faculties 

 of mind that the infinitely various experience of 

 after-life may be observed and reasoned upon to 

 the best effect. What is popularly condemned 

 as " cram " is often the best-devised and best-con- 

 ducted system of training toward this all-impor- 

 tant end. — Mind. 



