xxxiiiA] EXCURSIONS AND EXAMINATIONS 41/ 



Another evil result of these examinations under a Govern- 

 ment department is, that in order to justify their existence, it 

 is necessary to show a certain considerable amount of success. 

 Hence the " passes " are brought up to good general average, 

 however bad the bulk of the papers may be ; and people are 

 deluded by the idea that because a person has passed in 

 Physiography he has a good general knowledge of the whole 

 subject, whereas many pass who are quite unfit to teach any 

 portion of it to the smallest child. My own conclusion is that 

 all these examinations are an enormous waste of public money, 

 with no useful result whatever. Nature-knowledge of the 

 kind referred to is the most important, the most interesting, 

 and therefore the most useful of all knowledge. But to be 

 thus useful it must be taught properly throughout the whole 

 period of instruction from the kinder-garten onwards, always 

 by means of facts, experiments, and outdoor observation, 

 supplemented, where necessary, by fuller exposition of difficult 

 points in the classroom. 



The whole status of the teacher is degraded by the present 

 system, which assumes that any fairly educated person can, 

 by means of a few courses of lectures and a short period of 

 cramming, be qualified to teach these subjects to the young. 

 The real fact is that none can teach them properly who 

 have not a natural taste for them, and have largely taught 

 themselves by personal observation and study. They alone 

 know the difficulties felt by beginners ; they alone are able to 

 go to the fundamental principles that underlie the most 

 familiar phenomena, and are thus able to make everything 

 clear to their pupils. Such men are comparatively rare, but 

 they should be carefully sought for and given the highest 

 rank in the teacher's profession. When that is done, no 

 examinations will be advisable or necessary. 



Before quitting the examination question, I wish to say a 

 word in favour of the late Professor Ansted as an Examiner 

 in Physical Geography. On looking over many of the papers 

 set by him from 1871 to 1877, I am greatly impressed by his 

 broad grasp of the whole subject, and the admirable manner 

 in which he dealt in turn with all the natural phenomena 



VOL, II. 2 E 



