112 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 239 



It is plain enough that there are serious practical difficulties in 

 the way of such courses. The chief one is in the amount of time 

 required from the instructor for their successful management. It 

 not only requires that the instructor should have a complete ac- 

 quaintance with his subject, but requires a constant personal super- 

 vision and thought, constant variations with different students, and 

 requires that each instructor should plan his own course. A text- 

 book is impossible, for it defeats its own end ; or, if one instructor 

 should write a book for his own class, it would be useless for others. 

 Indeed, it is hardly possible to have any definite course ; the aim 

 being that each student should be brought in contact with the prin- 

 ciples of nature as best suits his own ability, and not that the class 

 as a whole should go over a regular course. Such work is by far 

 the most difficult sort of teaching; and with the present small 

 faculties of many of our colleges, and the inadequate training of 

 many of the professors, it is practically impossible. But happily the 

 faculties are growing larger, and more and more attention is being 

 paid to selecting instructors fitted for their departments by previous 

 training. Fewer hours of recitation-work are demanded, and more 

 time is left to our instructors for thought and personal teaching. In 

 many places can be seen a constant growth of this personal con- 

 tact of instructor and student, and as fast as it grows we see the 

 routine work of classes replaced by the work of students as indi- 

 viduals. 



Along this line, then, we may look for the future development of 

 sciences in the American college. We may hope for an increase in 

 the amount of original investigation ; but this must come chiefly 

 from the instructors and graduate students, and it will then serve 

 as an inspiration to the college. We may look for larger labora- 

 tories, more apparatus, and greater facilities for practical work on 

 the part of large classes of students ; but this will be insufficient 

 unless we see at the same time an increase in the corps of instruct- 

 ors. Our boards of instructors should be large enough to make 

 possible some personal supervision of the students, so that the in- 

 dividual will not become swallowed up in the mass, and large 

 enough to allow to the instructors some time for research, by which 

 means alone they can keep apace with the times. The great demand 

 of higher education in this country is, therefore, not for more col- 

 leges or more buildings, but for more money devoted to instruction. 



H. W. Conn. 



THE FUNCTION AND CONDUCT OF EXAMINATIONS. 



The professors of a German university do not assign the student 

 lessons, or require him to hear lectures. When the time comes to 

 grant or refuse him the degree, their sole sources of information as 

 to his fitness to receive it are, the thesis that he hands in, and the 

 examination to which he is subjected. As respects time, this is a 

 system of unlimited election. That it develops splendid qualities in 

 the student ; that it is very grateful to young men who love freedom 

 and hate task-work ; and that, together with the other features of 

 the German system, it produces scholars eminent in every branch 

 of scholarship, — are well-known facts. In a German university, 

 stated work is at a minimum, and the examination at a maximum, 

 as a test of proficiency. 



At the opposite end of the scale are the primary schools, in the 

 strictest sense of that term. Here no election of work or time can 

 be allowed beyond what extra-school conditions call for. ' Cut- 

 ting ' is absolutely inadmissible. The teacher cannot wait until 

 the end of the term or month, or even day, to discover what 

 the pupil knows : he must prescribe work every day, and, at the 

 beginning, every hour, and then see that the work is done. This is 

 a maximum of lesson, and a minimum of examination. 



So far, all is plain and easy. But the moment that we enter the 

 grades of school-work lying between these extremes, we meet a 

 wide difference of opinion, and encounter serious practical difficul- 

 ties. Here Germany has nothing to teach us. The method of the 

 primary school is then continued to the end of the gymnasium 

 course, when the student plunges at once into the fullest university 

 liberty. The proper end is, rather, progressively to lift the pupil 

 above the task-work level, to give him freedom, and to make him 

 self-reliant. Two opposite tendencies are now very observable in 

 the United States : — 



1. A considerable number of colleges are allowing a limited elec- 

 tion of time. This means, if a proper regimen is maintained, less 

 dependence upon the daily recitation, and more dependence upon 

 the examination. 



2. In the intermediate public-school grades there is a diminishing 

 dependence upon the examination, and an increasing dependence 

 upon the daily work, particularly when the time comes to make the 

 promotions : in fact, this tendency is declaring itself all along 

 the public-school line. 



These tendencies are both good ; something of the freedom and 

 enthusiasm of the university is finding its way into the college ; 

 and there is a manifest slackening of the high public-school tension 

 of a few years ago, that was brought about by the abuse of ex- 

 aminations. Good results may be expected from both these move- 

 ments. ^ 



The adjustment of requirement and election, of stated lessons 

 and examinations, above the primary grades and below the college, 

 or possibly the university, is a problem that every teacher and 

 superintendent will be called upon to solve anew. The elements 

 will vary, and no formula can be given. The solution in a given 

 case will depend upon the facts that condition the home, the 

 school, and even the individual pupil. It is often urged against 

 examinations that they promote cramming. Teachers who have to 

 solve this problem will do well to remember that they also tend to 

 prevent cramming. Pupils cram for the daily recitation as well as 

 for the examination ; and as the daily recitation tends to check 

 cramming for the one purpose, so the examination tends to check it 

 for the other purpose. B. A. Hinsdale. 



I AM asked to write a veiy brief article on the function and con- 

 duct of examinations. By examinations is meant a formal set of 

 questions answered in writing. Among the useful purposes which 

 can be subserved by such tests are the following : — 



1. They may serve as a stimulus or incentive to study. Students 

 who know that at some period of their work they will be required 

 to give written answers to questions based on the work done are 

 likely to be more attentive, industrious, and interested in their 

 work. 



2. They encourage thoroughness. Those who prepare for an 

 oral recitation may depend upon chance, or artifice, or favoritism, ta 

 help them through ; but a searching examination, calling for exact 

 written statements, is another matter, and demands better prepara- 

 tion. 



3. They afford an opportunity, in some instances, for a review of 

 the whole subject passed over during the term. 



4. They are often valuable as an exercise in English composition, 

 calling as they do for clear, concise, comprehensive statements. 



5. They are a revelation to the pupils of their own ability and at- 

 tainments, as well as of their weakness and defects. 



6. They call for concentration of mind, sustained mental effort,, 

 and a ready use of one's resources, which is a valuable educational 

 discipline. 



7. They reveal to the teacher the results of his teaching, the fail- 

 ure or success of his methods, and thus afford an opportunity 

 of modifying his work when necessary. 



8. The tabulated results of a series of examinations, extending- 

 through several months or years, indicate with considerable cer- 

 tainty the student's trend of mind, habits of study, and scholarly 

 development. These results are specially valuable to parents in de- 

 ciding what is best for their children. 



9. The results are helpful to superintendents and others in 

 forming an opinion of the progress of the pupils, and the work of 

 the teacher. 



10. They give to school-work a kind of dignity, increase the 

 student's self-respect, and impart to the teacher's mind a judicial 

 habit, freeing him from the great tendency to judge of his pupils 

 by sentimental regard rather than by a critical judgment. 



With these ends in view, how shall the examinations be con- 

 ducted ? 



I. They should be an ordinary, and not an extraordinary, part of 

 school machinery. If they are held only at the close of a term, or 

 at the conclusion of a study, the students should be prepared for 

 them by the character of the daily recitation, and by occasional 



