NEW SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 6 (Supplement)

NEW SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS

HELPING THE CHILDREN. The modern system of education is a subject round which wise men are constantly raising a controversy. They say that there are many objectionable features to it—the tendency to "cram," confinement in ill-ventilated rooms, and method of con ducting examinations. In New Zealand things seem to be about the same as everywhere else; notwithstanding all that has been said and writ-, ten, the old system still obtains. Certain it is that many of our best and brightest men and women have come through it safe and sound, and equally certain that others have grown to maturity with , impaired physique, although the conditions may have been precisely the same in both cases. Teachers as Examiners. It is therefore interesting to note that a new system of examinations is being tested in Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian says that promotion is now to be left to the judgment of the superintendent, and under him to the teachers, instead of being governed entirely by the former mechanical tests. Such examinations as are held will be made constructively helpful instead of attempts to make the pupil's progress difficult. It is well known that the best student in the class sometimes fails in examinations, while poorer students may "cram " for them and get through. The pity of it is that the knowledge gained by this method of "cramming'' if. never lasting, whereas a little knowledge, properly acquired, is of value to men and women long after their school days are done.