in these American schools, as compared with British, is the life 

 and interest of the pupils themselves. 



3. THE EXAMINATION AND PRIZE SYSTEM DESTROYS TRUE 

 EDUCATION. 



Professor R. B. Clifton, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Merton 

 and Wadham, Oxford. — "I fully believe that competitive 

 examinations carried to their present extent obscure the true 

 meaning of education, destroy the best teaching, degrade and 

 retard the advance of the subjects studied." 



John Ruskin in Fors Clavigera. — "Farther, of schools in all 

 places and for all ages the healthy working will depend on the 

 total exclusion of the stimulus of competition in any form or 

 disguise." 



The Principal of a Girls' College. — " They (the girl pupils) 

 are usually successful in the examinations, but in culture are far, 

 far behind the pupils of twenty years ago, who read and 

 digested the best authors." 



E. F. V. Knox, All Souls', Oxford. — " I gained a good deal 

 in pocket by the Irish Intermediate Examination, but at the 

 expense of my education." 



Auberon Herbert. — "We all know that it is easy to get 

 striking effects from stimulants of all kinds, but we also know 

 that their effect is specially for the moment, and opposed to the 

 normal processes of health." And again, referring to the 

 degradation of the study of English Literature: "As things 

 are, it can only be hoped that some subjects which are most 

 fitted to develop delicate perceptive powers will not be 

 taught. To teach English literature in view of a great competi- 

 tive examination is to run the grave risk of destroying the charm 

 which many minds, at a later period, might find in it. A subject 

 full of suggestion of delicate half-lights and shadows can only be 

 coarsened by such treatment, and the bloom rubbed off from 

 the bud before it has opened. You might as profitably have a 

 competitive examination in religious feelings." 



M. E. Budden, M.A., Grammar School, Bury.—" The evil, 

 as regards mathematics, is obvious. Men are carefully trained 



