844 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 
six grades of knowledge which between the ages of seven and thirteen 
every child should attain. He invented the Sixth Standard. He was for 
many years member for the University of London, which is perhaps 
the fullest product of the examination system Mr. Lowe did so much 
to foster. The work of this University is summed up in a report 
presented to its Convocation seventeen years ago* : — “ The beneficial 
influence of the broad and searching system of examinations which 
has gradually been elaborated during the last forty years by the 
Senate is one of the best titles of the University to respect. This 
influence has been exerted upon all the higher education of the 
country, directly upon the schools which send up candidates for 
matriculation and the colleges and medical schools, and less directly 
upon professional and scientific training generally, as well as upon the 
examining systems of the older universities.” 
Since the date of that report much has occurred in the way of 
extension of examination, to which the latest proposed addition comes 
as a suggestion from Mr. Walter Besant, that journalists should 
submit to a system of examination. 
After sixty years of steady expansion the examination system 
shows little evidence of weakening.f The principle involved is quite 
inseparable from the processes of education. What the teacher 
catechises in, lie should at the jiroper time catechise out. In this way 
he stimulates the intelligence and tests the progress of his pupils. 
He can have no evidence of the value of his work except by a series 
of challenges skilfully adapted to the comprehension of the learner. 
No one can be said to know a fragment of his subject unless able 
to produce in his own words a substantial amount of what he thinks 
he knows. Under the catechetical test all flaws and gaps due to 
imperfect apprehension, to carelessness, to defective memory are 
rapidly and clearly revealed. In the hands of a skilful teacher a 
learner is turned inside out as neatly as Lucian makes his puppets do 
for each other in the “ Dialogues of the Dead.” 
Examinations of this kind as between a man and his class lie 
altogether under his own control. He knows wbat to expect, what 
he may fairly exact, and how to render his process suitable to the 
person and to the subject in hand. He is arbiter of tlie manner, the 
matter, and the result. Much first-class work of this sort is daily and 
hourly done in every reputable place of education throughout the 
world, while from the nature of the case the mass of examination 
work is effected in class-rooms between teacher and pupil. 
It is held by many men of high repute that in the extension of 
examinations to wider and more responsible spheres this is the best 
principle to apply. In academical work of university rank, it is 
frequently contended that professors are best fitted to conduct the 
examinations of their own students. 
This claim was advanced in 1884 during the agitation for the 
establishment of a teaching university for London. 
* Convocation Reports : 1877-1378, p. 50. 
f During the last ten years in Great Britain correspondence has replaced other 
means of coaching for examinations. This way of question and answer is used in 
preparation for examinations of all kinds. The educational journals witness to the 
thriving nature of this enterprise. “ Successes ” form the chief detail of the advertise- 
ments. 
