ON THE INFLUENCE OF EXAMINATIONS. 439 



S 5. The Certificate examinations of Oxford and Cambridge tend to 

 direct the teaching of most subjects along reasonable lines and interfere 

 little with the liberty of action of schools. Array examinations with 

 their cast-iron system of marking deserve the criticism they have lately 

 received. 



S 2. Examinations such as those of the Joint Board and the Locals 

 on the whole seem to direct the teaching along reasonable lines ; neverthe- 

 less they tend to check independence of action and of thought (a) in setting 

 special books on periods, (6) in the mode of examining in modern languages. 

 Some oral test is needed. 



S 4. Everything depends on the character of the examiner. 



S 13. Curricula should not be controlled by examinations but directly, 

 and the examinations (more limited than at present and at early ages) 

 arranged to fit the curricula. 



S 15. Some interference is probably inevitable. On the whole it has 

 diminished in evil effect very much within my recollection, chiefly because 

 better papers (on the average) are now set. The worst effects are not, I 

 think, direct, but are transmitted through the text-books. A bad exami- 

 nation always produces a crop of these in a few years, and many of them 

 are indescribably stupid and disheartening. An Index Expurgatorius of 

 such books might be of use to those engaged in reforming examinations. 

 The object should be to make the examination of such a character that 

 these books would not enable a candidate to ' score.' 



S 34. Thinks that only the highest forms of a school should be sub- 

 ject to outside tests. 



S 12. Examinations have of late years become much more elastic. 

 Those who frame the various programmes show a desire to encourage a 

 liberal school curriculum. 



S 1. Ever since the first examinations for the I.C.S. came into 

 full play the whole question has weighed on me like a nightmare. 

 I believe that examinations as they are — with some rare exceptions — are 

 giving a totally wrong tread to education. They are subsidising the 

 receptive and discouraging the training of the instructive powers of the 

 mind ; they are encouraging a sort of cut-and-dried mode of teaching and 

 learning which would have driven Arnold wild ; indeed, under such 

 auspices an Arnold could not arise, and (especially the Army examina- 

 tions) they are imbuing most of their victims with a lively detestation of 

 study. I believe that the dislike to the study of their profession, so 

 marked in Army oflicers, is the natural fruit of their cramming to get 

 into Sandhurst. Education cannot exist on an Army side, and cram- 

 ming disgusts its victims. The true remedy seems to me to be to reform 

 and not to abolish examinations. What should be encouraged by them 

 is not crammed knowledge but mastery of a subject and intelligence. 



The particular subjects of education appear to me to be of very 

 secondary importance so long as the cultivation of the constructive and 

 original rather than of the receptive faculties of the mind is the object 

 aimed at. 



S 3. Existing examinations have a most evil effect on school curricula 

 and liberty of action in the larger schools, which are run by men who 

 will rejoice in rather than abuse such liberty. Here we are blessed with 

 an absolutely free hand, and teach how and what we like as far as 

 science is concerned ; the result is a large body of boys who are honestly 

 keen on working at science (up to their lights, which are dim) in 



