WHAT 18 CRAMMING?

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13415, 30 June 1911, Page 4

WHAT 18 CRAMMING?

Some remarks on the advantages and disadvantages of examinations were made by Mr E. K. Mulgan, chief inspector of the tuckland schools, at the opening of the barred Heart Convent at Rcmuera on Monlay. Mr Mulgan said that examinations tad their distinct advantages, as well as -mdoubted drawbacks. "The stock charge against examinations,” he said, “is that hey lead to, or lend themselves to, crair ming. It is difficult to know what is implied by ‘cramming,’ but if it means the newer of being able to master part of a jubject in a limited time, it can hardly be mid to be without educative and utilitive value. It may be true that when the examination is over the candidate may never have occasion to refer directly to the subject in which he has been tested, hut he has acquired the power of learning with rapidity, and perhaps to apply himself resolutely where he may have littl«> real interest. This is a highly valuable and educative exercise. The fuller and more responsible life lying before him will require a performance of many unpleasant duties and much hard and disagreeable work. Can there be any better preparation for this than when’at school he had to apply himself to unpleasant tasks in a serious and determined way?" Mr Mulgan said that ho believed there was such a thing as injurious cramming, by which he meant the hasty and imperfect training which not only left no lasting impression behind, and cultivated the memory at the expense of the intelligence, but what was infinitely worse, led young people to imagine that a real grasp of a subject was being acquired when they wore 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 ho wished to draw attention to wag 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 was the foundation on which such a charge rested. In conclusion. the speaker referred to the grave danger that lay in making too much of examinations, and allowing them to divert the attention of both pupil and teacher from the real and more enduring aims of education.