54 



University student, not for the schoolboy, and that the Univer- 

 sities did harm by giving Entrance Scholarships in single sub- 

 jects. A boy should leave school with a fair all round know- 

 ledge. The being obliged to. do some work at a distasteful subject 

 was a most useful discipline. A man who could only do what 

 he " liked" would probably be a failure in active life. 



Referring to the question of outside examinations, the speaker 

 replied to some of the objections : — (e) no school that was success- 

 ful year after year could push on the clever boys at the expense 

 of the others, it would be a disastrous policy after two or three 

 years, (/) " Cramming," or the unintelligent learning of text 

 books could not exist in the face of good examining ; the 

 '* cramming" school would soon be out of the race, (g) Pupils 

 it was urged were kept too long at one book or (k) they had so 

 much to do that they did not master their work. To these con- 

 tradictory objections he would reply that when either of these 

 results occurred it was the fault of those who drew up the 

 syllabus and not inherent in the system, (z) As regards over- 

 work, he had in a long experience only known two cases, and 

 of both of these he gave details to shew that the fault could not 

 fairly be attributed to the examinations. Parents should insist 

 on their children going to bed at a reasonable hour, {k) He 

 did not think that prizes caused ill-will and envy ; all men 

 work for some kind of prize and yet they may be consciously 

 working to please their Divine Master. At the same time he 

 would, with the essayist, keep emulation in the background, and 

 would direct the pupil's attention rather to the maximum of 

 marks than to those gained by his neighbour. Speaking 

 generally he did not find that outside examinations hampered 

 him. The chief influence on his oWn teaching was that an out- 

 side board selected the books the class was to study, instead of 

 his doing so himself; as a rule the selections were good. He 

 thought that the idea of giving up outside examinations was a 

 retrograde one, as the institution of these examinations had 

 undoubtedly immensely improved the schools of the United 

 Kingdom and had prevented the stagnation that used to be so 

 common. He believed too, despite the Nineteenth Century 



