362 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION L. 



the trained mind essential to a full member of a civilised community. (Exami- 

 nations, except as a test of individual progress, aro a serious blot on education.) 



The course of linguistic studies needs no defence, and the claims of scientific 

 studies are duly recognised by educationalists. The interdependence of the 

 two is confidently asserted. 



There is the menace to a wide education from the Bolshevism of fanatics, 

 who would destroy the old because it is old. Such extremists are injuring their 

 own cause, and incidentally display an ignorance of the capacity and bent of 

 the average boy. They are possibly deluded by the phenomenon of a primitive 

 mechanical interest, which they mistake for a sincere scientific enthusiasm. 



The present situation is critical for five reasons — the degenerate standard of 

 modern British taste in literature and the theatre, the importance of the growth 

 of ' Cosmopolitan ' ideas of brotherhood, the increase in the leisure time nov^r 

 available to the less educated population, the demands of the new Education 

 Acts for extending the educational facilities of the majority, the general ignor- 

 ance of economics intensified by the complete ignorance of history. 



Modern secondary education exhibits a reasonable division of the curriculum 

 between scientific and other studies. There is a danger in one-sided specialisa- 

 tion : in particular, the battle against an exaggerated vocational training must 

 be fought. A possible cause for present discontent is the starving of the 

 spiritual life and the imagination. The highest education is association with 

 great minds; through the medium of art and literature this is possible for all. 

 imagination and reason both must be developed : either is incomplete alone. 

 Science cannot provide both for all, nor can all be ' scientifically ' educated at 

 first hand. A wise compromise is essential and desirable. 



The writer is no linguistic fanatic nor desirous of ' subordinating progress 

 and the future to the realm of ghosts and nursery tales.' From his own experi- 

 ence of the young mind he would emphasise the need of literary studies to 

 develop the imaginative and moral faculties. Mankind will never be satisfied 

 by an education limited to the finite or to demonstrable truths. 



I 



Fundamental Principles in Education : The Function of Examinations 

 in Education. By Prof. Marcus Hartog, M.A., D.Sc. 



The methods of pasdagogics may be roughly classified into Exposition, Study — 

 including set tasks, observation, and preparation by the pupil — and Examination, 

 which is not merely the test of the two former, but possesses training virtues 

 which are all its own. 



Examinations may be oral or written ; but, for the purposes of this paper, I 

 shall limit the term to the written, where the pupil answers set questions unaided 

 (and in the later stages in a limited time), and where the scripts are marked for 

 merit — sit venia verba — by the examiner, and in the earlier stages form the 

 subject of a ' lesson on the scripts,' when they are commented upon by the 

 teacher, and, it may be, by the class. Examinations fall naturally into three 

 groups — Class, Grading, and Selective — for which some award is made, whether 

 it be place, prize or appointment. Where these are made on the result of 

 grading examinations, they acquire a selective character. 



Class examinations begin as soon as the child has acquired some freedom of 

 expression in writing, and are continued through not only his school life, but 

 in many cases form part of academic teaching, from which the practice of the 

 best coaches only differs in their more constant utilisation. Together with oral 

 examinations they are the essential complement of exposition and study. The 

 method is invaluable for the teacher, since in reading the scripts he is enabled 

 to discover the weak points of his teaching and to amend them. To the pupil 

 it affords training in independent thougjit, unaided by the help of the teacher, 

 who can with difficulty restrain himself from helpful suggestions in an oral 

 examination. He learns the value of persistent concentration. Terseness and 

 directness of expression he gains, if only to avoid the tedious handiwork of hand- 

 writing. Precision and clearness of expression are insisted on by the teacher, 

 who will never tolerate fluffiness or confusion of ideas. And clearness of under- 

 standing is needed, for answers wide of the mark — volunteered answers— are as 

 worthless here as at any later stage. 



