NO EXAMINATIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 12870, 20 July 1906, Page 1

NO EXAMINATIONS.

" Teaching by discussion" is the fSrhi of education advocated by the rung Alfred. School Society. An 'Evening. Standard' (London) representative, who visited the first school opened by the society, at Hamp-: stead, found a happy band of children of l»th sexes reveliiug in their work. Ono class was engaged in an exercise in composition. ." First they write the composition,' 1 explainwi'Mr John Russell, the master. . ".Then I go through each piece, correcting mistakes or making' comments in. red ink. Now they are making a series of notes on my corrections. Subsequently we discuss the points raised." In their notes the scholars explained why they ranue the mistakes, suggested further amendments, or defended their phraseology against the head-master's criticism. While this went on the head-master took his< seat in the adjoining room, and invited a small girl to begin, a discussion of the problem of "conjunctions.'' The class was not a class, but a, society of scientific investigators, aged from nine to twelve. The headmaster gently directed the discussion, and with bis aid the boys and girls graduallybuilt up a business-like definition of a sentence, and arrived at a common understanding with regard to nouns and conjunctions and verbs. Each child spoke as opportunity offered, and his or her proposition was examined critically by the others, and found correct or otherwise. For a fewmoments the nine and ten-year-old professors then addressed themselves to a point ia logic which had been left over froni ( the morning. They simply revelled in " premises" and " conclusions" and "proofs." The head-master, gave the pre.mises: "Fat creatures do not run well." and "Some greyhounds run-'.won." The lisping logicians quickly reached the correct conclusion: "Some greyhounds arc not fat." From the class room the children ran to the workshop, and there boys and girls together busied themselves saw* ing,- planing, doing everything thai can be done at a carpenter's bench. In every subject the process of teaching by discussion is applied as far as possible, with the result that the children are seized with a spirit of inquiry, and without hasping any home lessons or any corporal punishment leaacn much more than most children, almost without knowing it. No distinction is made between boy and girL They work and play together, a,id Mr Russell told the Press representative.-thai as a result the boys axe more gentlemanly and the girls .iro less sentimental and more independent. There are no marks, no prizes, no examinations. All the mental energy of the childnen is directed solely towards the acquirement of knowledge and the accomplishment of good work.' At tho age of thirteen a girl can- use a full-siab saw, argue a proposition in logic, composa a sonnet, turn gracefully head over heels on a horizontal bar, take part in a quartet., demonstrate the properties of hydrogen and oxygen with a test tube, or execute a model in clay. The supporters of the so-' ciety include Professor Miall, Sir James Crichton-Browne, the Hon. John Collier, and Mr Hamo Tbornvcroft, rJI