ABOUT "CRAMMING."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 28 June 1911, Page 3

ABOUT "CRAMMING."

VIEWS OF A SCHOOL INSPECTOR. AUCKLAND, June 20. Some remarks on liie advantages and disadvantages of examination were made by Mr E. K. Mulgaii, chief inspector of' schools, at the opening of the Sacred Heart Convent at Kemuera yesterday. Mr Mulgan said that examinations had their distinct advantages as well a* undoubted drawbacks. "The stock gharge against examinations," he said. ' r isi thnt they lead to, or lend themselves to, cramming. It is difficult to know what is implied ■by 'cramming,' but if it means the power of being able to master part of a subject in a limited time it can hardly, be said t 0 be without educative and utilitive value. It may be trui that when "the examination is over 1 the candidate may never have occasion to refer directly to the subject in which ho has been tested, but he has acquired the power of learning- with rapidity, and perhaps to apply himself resolutely where he may have little real interest. This i= a highly valuable and educative exercise. The fuller and more responsible life, lying before Wm will require a performance of many unpleasant duties arid much hard and disagreeable work. Ciin there be any better preparation for tin's 5 than whero at school he had to apply himself to irn- . pleasant tasks in a. serioug and determined way?'' Mr Mulgan said tliat he believed j there was such a thing as injurious •-.ramming, by w'hich he meant thr* hasjy and imperfect training which not only left no lasting impression behind, and cultivated the memory at the expense of the intelligence; but what wa, s infinitely worse, led young people to imagine that a real grasp of a subject was being acquired, when they were merely memorising a little superficial knowledge, and mistaking the shadow for the substance. Cramming in this sense was unfortunately not altogether unknown, and no one more than he deplored its existence; but what he wished to draw attention to was 1 that many people made against examinations and against their education system the charge of cramming without clearly understanding what the term implied or how insecure wa.s the foundation on which such a charge rested. In conclusion, ihe speaker referred to the grave danger that lay in makinjr too much of examiua tiona_ and allowing them to divert the attention of both pupil and' teacher Prom the real and more enduring aims >f education.