COMMENTS ON THE ''SACRIFICE OF EDUCATION:' 541 



teachers are teaching, and what the learners are learning. This 

 forces the learners not to attend to their own teachers, but to find 

 some way of satisfying the examiners. Examination papers, not 

 text-books, come to be the real subjects of study ; the aim of the 

 student is to get an insight into the mind of his examiner, not 

 that of his teacher ; and to master, not the subject of his study, 

 but that artificial skill of passing examinations. Thereupon grew 

 up another class of specialists — the crammers. Their business is, 

 not to teach, nor to test teaching ; but to enable students to pass 

 the tests. This soon became an art of its own, as artificial as play- 

 ing whist or the violin. So, in the cricket-field, having called in 

 professional bowlers to practice, it became necessary to call in 

 professional " coaches " to teach the defense of the wicket. And 

 in the result, education is tending to become a highly exciting 

 match, not so much between the players as between the " bowlers " 

 and the " coaches." The teachers are slowly thrust out and con- 

 trolled by the examiners ; they in turn are checked and dodged at 

 every turn by the crammers : so that learning is fast passing into 

 the grasp of two classes of specialists, neither of whom are teach- 

 ers, nor pretend to teach. 



I have myself had experience both of teaching and of exam- 

 ining for more than thirty years, in more than one university, and 

 in several places of learning. Though not belonging to the special 

 class of examiners, I have constantly been occupied with examin- 

 ing, have worked much with examiners, and have had no small 

 experience of the practical working of the system. I need hardly 

 say that I regard the special examiners as a most acute, energetic, 

 and conscientious body of men ; and I say the same of the cram- 

 mers as a class. Both do their work with great ability and con- 

 spicuous honesty. It is not the men, it is the vicious system 

 which is in fault. Every teacher knows by experience that, when 

 he has to take his place in the examination curriculum, he has to 

 submit to the system, and he does his best to practice the exam- 

 ining " art." And when, as every teacher nowadays must, he has 

 to turn crammer, he tries to acquire the crammer's art— omnes 

 eodem cogimur. Teachers, examiners, crammers, and students, all 

 have to take their place in the vast examining machine, which, 

 like the Prussian military system, grinds out a uniform pattern. 

 The huge examining mill grinds continually, and grinds very fast 

 — unlike the mills of the gods — but the grain it casts aside ; it is 

 designed to grind out the husk. 



I do not say that we can do without examinations : nor do I 

 object to all examinations, under any condition. My complaint is 

 confined to the incessant frequency of examinations, the growth 

 of the practice into a highly artificial system, the creation of a 

 profession of examining, and its correlative the profession of 



