ON THE INFLUENCE OF EXAMINATIONS. 375 
his work entirely in terms of examination. As long as examinations 
control the teaching, whether in Universities or schools in this country, so 
long will the teaching continue to be academic in the worst sense of the 
word, cribbed, cabined, and contined. 
‘From what I saw in America I am convinced that in the free system 
of teaching that exists there, even the week-kneed teacher gives stronger 
guidance to his pupils and produces better educational results than we do. 
The reason of this is obvious when we consider that in the American 
system the teacher is judged by the standard that he makes for himself, 
while with us the teacher has a standard imposed upon him by the 
examining body round the corner, which is almost inevitably a standard 
that tests whether the pupils have obtained the information to be found 
in certain prescribed books. For the English teacher with a prescribed 
amount of work to be got through in a certain time, whether such work 
is suited to the ability of the class or to the teacher’s powers, life is a 
continual rush. There is no time to deal in educational fashion with the 
mistakes of his pupils ; they are simply told that they are wrong and one 
of the others is set to put them right. Whereas for the American teacher 
life is in comparison a leisurely one. He makes as much if not more 
educational value out of the blunders of his weaker pupils as out of the 
correct answers of the stronger ones. He cares for the development of 
his class as a whole, and not mainly for that of those who will do him the 
most credit in answering the questions of an outsider. 
‘The degree to which examination by external bodies or examiners are 
regarded as baneful both to the pupil and for educational organisation is 
shown by the fact that they only exist for the purposes of professional 
qualifications in certain States and for the purposes of admission to 
Universities and colleges in certain other States. Even where they exist 
the evils that have been so strongly felt in this country have been largely 
guarded against. Thus an examination board has been formed by the 
Association of Colleges and Preparatory (7.e. preparatory for the colleges 
and Universities) Schools of the Middle States and Maryland for the 
purpose of instituting a common standard for admission to the colleges 
belonging to the association and of holding one examination for the 
purpose of that admission. Great care has been taken that the examiners 
in each case shal] be experienced teachers, and inasmuch as the examina- 
tion for admission to college is the test of the work done in the preparatory 
school, a large proportion of the examiners consists of masters who have 
been teaching in one or other such school. 
‘The papers set by this examination board seem to me on the whole 
admirable and well calculated to stimulate good teaching. While this 
has been done in the East in order to obviate the occurrence of many 
examinations, and in order to remove the difficulties that beset the old- 
fashioned Matriculation Examination which was mainly set by college or 
University professors in the Middle West, an even more significant system 
known as the accrediting system has been originated, and this system is 
rapidly spreading into the East. The accrediting system seems to have 
originated at the State University of Michigan, and to be largely due 
to the wisdom and foresight of President Angel. The old system of 
Matriculation Examination was not only found to be an unsatisfactory 
test of the pupils, but was found to be an actual bar to any satisfactory 
relations between the Universities and colleges and the schools. The 
University of Michigan determined, therefore, to institute a list of high 
