3IO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 324 



really most important branches of pedagogy. Good examiners are 

 rare, even among a body of eminently successful teachers. 



Varied as may be the questions, ingenious and cunning as may 

 be the side-issues woven in and easily overlooked, skilful as may 

 be the attempts to trip the student, hidden as may be the pitfalls 

 and snares, (and how quickly does an old student recognize them !) 

 the average examination-paper calls for but little more on the 

 part of the student than an accurate memory of facts, and some 

 little ingenuity in twisting them. By it may be ascertained the 

 nature and amount of facts that the student has gained. By it 

 cannot be ascertained the increase in intellectual power of the stu- 

 dent, his ability to apply these facts, the nature of the effect of the 

 particular study upon his intellect, his ability to proceed independ- 

 ently in the study of the subject, the development of original thought 

 in him, his interest in the subject, his perception of the value of the 

 subject to him, or whether he has been imbued with the true spirit 

 of that subject. Has he received "sacks full of dry leaves," or has 

 he seen "the living, growing tree"? Has the study been pre- 

 sented to him as the mortal, short-lived body, or the immortal, up- 

 ward-soaring soul ? The student tells about the odor, color, taste, 

 and form of substances he has never seen, and of physical phe- 

 nomena he has never observed. He quotes from books he has not 

 read, cites facts which he cannot establish, defends theories in 

 which he does not believe, and proves to the satisfaction of the ex- 

 aminer statements which he doubts at heart. If the examination 

 does not show more than a memorized knowledge of facts, it 

 amounts to the old a b, ab ; b e, be ; it is a waste of time and 

 energy ; it's a hypocritical farce. The young student feels it to be 

 one, and the older student and the teacher know that it is one. 



Numerous remedies have been prescribed, and some are cer- 

 tainly excellent. Examining committees are a step in the right 

 direction. If each member questions the student, the result will 

 be that he will soon show what real progress he has made in the 

 subject, and also how well he has been taught. But these com- 

 mittees, while good in theory, rarely carry out their work with much 

 success, for a natural delicacy is felt in pushing hard the student 

 of a colleague ; and the majority of the committee-men have, as a 

 rule, quite enough to do in examining their own classes. A bright, 

 keen man of business often makes a good examiner. He does not 

 know much about the subject, and really wants information. To 

 enlighten such a man, and satisfy his inquisitiveness, the student 

 has to assume the part of teacher, and soon shows if he really 

 knows any thing about the subject beyond a mere parrot-like rep- 

 etition of disconnected facts. Such an examination, however, is 

 always incomplete, and often too long. Neither can such an ex- 

 aminer go through a whole class. 



As in all other matters, to make examinations of value, the sub- 

 ject must be investigated and the principles found out. We must 

 know what objects are to. be attained, and then we must follow, as 

 best we can, not an empirical routine, but a philosophical proced- 

 ure ; not like professors in the University of Laputa, but remem- 

 bering that we live in the nineteenth century. 



The mind acts successively in three ways ; viz., by observation, 

 comparison (judgment), reason. These are broad divisions, and 

 may of course be subdivided, but it would be beyond the scope of 

 this paper to go into the details of classification. Having obtained 

 facts by observation (and I include here not alone the physical and 

 chemical properties of unorganized and organized matter, but 

 statements of events, and of subjective data, etc., such as may be 

 obtained by reading), the mind compares the mental images so 

 gained, and perceives wherein they resemble each other and where- 

 in they differ. The next step is reasoning, — inductive when the 

 step is from the particular to the general, and deductive when it is 

 from the general to the particular. These four actions of the mind 

 should always be tested in an examination, that it may show what 

 effect the study of the subject has had on these four typical men- 

 tal processes, and how well the mind has been trained to act in 

 this fourfold way by the study of the subject. 



A student may tell us all about Napoleon and Washington as 

 glibly as if he were reading from a book. But let him be asked 

 wherein these two men resembled each other, and wherein they 

 differed from each other, and the glibness disappears like a flash ; 

 for the mind must now apply its facts, compare the images, and 



note similarities and differences. The student begs for time to 

 think, — a sad reflection on his previous answers. I will also in- 

 clude memory as a faculty of the mind. It should always be 

 tested by an examination, but it is a very difficult matter to say 

 just what value is to be placed on it. It is a treacherous and 

 elusive faculty. It may be temporarily active, yet in the main tor- 

 pid. It may be slow, yet lasting. Its absence is a fault, its pres- 

 ence is a danger. It has many forms, and plays many a deceitful role. 

 While memory is the antecedent necessity of thought, it is still a 

 subservient faculty. It is the useful slave, but a tyrant when 

 master. I would make it work to its full limit, yet not honor it 

 with medals. It is my tool, my library, my sword, my medicine, 

 but it is not /. The wise teacher and examiner know well how to 

 bring out its full value, and yet not to be led astray by* its dazzle. 

 Readiness of perception should also be taken into account, but 

 this is still more difficult to value than memory. Men reach their 

 objective aims in different ways, some quickly, some slowly. The 

 important point is to be sure that they really do attain them. 



The difficulty with the examinations in vogue in England, to 

 judge from the complaints recently published, is that they fall too 

 entirely under the first head. They test the students' powers of 

 observation alone, and allow the substitution of memorizing for 

 thinking. While they fall under observation, these examinations 

 do not at all test or train the students' real or full powers of obser- 

 vation. In physical science, for instance, the school-knowledge of 

 the properties of matter learned from books is not to be compared 

 with the worth of the same knowledge gained by actual experiment 

 on the part of the student. No amount of " cram " can ever teach 

 a student the possible differences and similarities between the 

 images that his memorizing of facts has stamped on his mind with 

 more or less vividness and durability. The skilled examiner can 

 ring changes on them without end. Nor can " cram " help to any 

 extent in reasoning. Inductions and deductions can be ground out 

 in an endless stream, even by the average examiner; but the ex- 

 perienced questioner, studying the mind before him, as one dis- 

 sects some delicate organism, tests its working, examines its prod- 

 ucts, and notes its behavior under varying conditions, forming a 

 fair opinion as to what it is intended to do, and how well it may 

 be expected to do it. Nor need any two examinations ever be 

 alike ; assuming, of course, that the teacher is himself a real teacher, 

 and not a mere animated phonograph. 



Should examinations be so conducted as to test the mind in the 

 way indicated, there would be of course a great turmoil, for hun- 

 dreds of students would fail to pass. As the blame for the failure 

 of the student to understand what he studies is usually, and to a 

 certain extent with justice, thrown on the teachers, there would be 

 another wild outcry on their part. All of this agitation would re- 

 sult, however, in what is really demanded, — a form of examina- 

 tion that should show the condition and working of the student's 

 mind as affected by each particular subject, and that should also 

 demonstrate the ability of the teacher, not only to impart informa- 

 tion, but to develop minds by means of his particular subject. It 

 will require great courage on the part of teachers to give examina- 

 tions that shall show whether the students really know any thing 

 about the subjects of their studies. It will be difficult to assign 

 marks to such examinations that shall be entirely satisfactory or 

 exact ; but the education of the student in facts and principles, the 

 development of his mind by them, and his ability to observe for 

 himself and to use his knowledge in the production of new knowl- 

 edge, will be attained. These, and not the representation of mind- 

 power by figures, when no unit of mind-power is known, are the 

 real objects of education ; for the ideal man of to-day is not he 

 who simply acquires knowledge, but he who makes knowledge. 

 Production, not absorption, is the standard by which men are to be 

 judged. Knowledge alone is not power, it is the ability to use 

 knowledge that constitutes power. 



Examining, or testing the condition and action of the mind, is a 

 subject of great pedagogical importance. It certainly seems evi- 

 dent that the present agitation about examinations will end in prov- 

 ing, not that examinations are of no value, but that many examin- 

 ers do not yet fully understand the facts, principles, and methods 

 of examinatory science. Peter T. Austen. 



New Brunswick, N.J., April 13. 



