174 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 554. 



years ago in a study to determine the rela- 

 tive merits of the two methods of college 

 entrance, received answers from college 

 officers in favor of certificated students: 

 In mental ability, five to one; in the gen- 

 eral performance of college duties, three to 

 one. 



Professor Whitney, of Michigan, investi- 

 gating the freshman grades of more than 

 1,000 students, about equally divided be- 

 tween those entering upon credit and those 

 taking entrance examination, found that 

 the average standing of the former was 

 more than one and one half per cent, higher 

 than for the latter. 



Impartial testimony might be gleaned 

 from European educators. Professor T. 

 Grregory Foster in the report of the last 

 Alfred Mosely Commissions^ rejoices that 

 it is a fundamental principle in American 

 universities, that the man who is fit to teach 

 is also to be trusted to examine his own stu- 

 dents. He remarks : ' As long as examina- 

 tions control the teaching, whether in uni- 

 versities or schools in this country [Great 

 Britain] , so long will the teaching continue 

 to be academic in the worst sense of the 

 word, cribbed, cabined and confined.' He 

 notes the degree to which examinations by 

 external bodies or examiners is regarded 

 as baneful in the United States both to the 

 pupil and for the educational organization, 

 and commends the attempt of the college 

 entrance examination board to guard 

 against some of the evils by having sec- 

 ondary schoolmen on the board. But to 

 Professor Foster the accrediting system of 

 the middle west is ' a more significant plan ' 

 and one rapidly spreading into the east. 

 He says : " In the states where it has been 

 adopted, the whole educational system has 

 been unified and strengthened. The bar- 

 riers between various grades of teachers are 

 being removed. The teaching of all classes 



=^Pp. 115-118. 



of teachers is thereby made more direct, 

 more stimulating and attractive to students. 

 The accrediting system as versus the older 

 leaves the teacher and the taught free and 

 thereby stimulates to better training." 

 Professor Foster quotes President Harper 

 as opposed to the accrediting system when 

 he left Yale, but now as a firm believer in 

 it as a result of his experience. The pro- 

 fessor concludes: 'It is perhaps one of the 

 most noteworthy contributions of America 

 to educational progress.' 



Mr. M. E. Sadler,^- director of special in- 

 quiries and reports, Educational Depart- 

 ment of England and "Wales, speaks de- 

 cisively as to certain principles applicable 

 to our discussion : 



' ' State certificates bestowed as results of 

 written examinations at a prescribed mo- 

 ment at the close of their school life, are 

 injurious in their influence as well on the 

 work of the schools as on the physical, 

 mental and ethical development of the 

 pupils and also on the national ideals of 

 education, and on the parents' conception 

 of what education can do and ought to do. 

 The more valuable influences of a secondary 

 school lie in its tone, its ^<9"?, in its tradi- 

 tion, in the outlook which it encourages its 

 pupils to take on life and duty, in the rela- 

 tion between teachers and scholars, in the 

 relation among the scholars themselves. 

 None of these things can be tested by writ- 

 ten examinations, conducted by examiners, 

 however able or impartial, who have never 

 seen the school. It is judged on paper. It 

 is possible for a school to simulate great 

 intellectual efficiency by reason of an in- 

 tensive process of 'cram' which reflects 

 immense credit on the skill and industry 

 of the teachers, but guarantees little of 

 permanent educational value to the pupils 

 prepared. Yet a system of merely written 



--Ediic. Rev., 21: 497-515, May, 1901; cf. pp. 

 507-12. 



