be relegated to second rank in any system of education. Moreover, the intimacy between master and scholar in a good home school — an intimacy which, in the course of years, ripens into an affection that is akin to parental love make it extremely difficult for the teacher to judge the boy from one standpoint only. He knows him too well; his faults and his virtues are spread before him in an open book. To single out one attainment on which to predict the future is to neglect others which will surely tell as time goes on. How can the master, under such conditions, be a righteous judge? So it happens that in such a system of education, examinations conducted by higher authorities come easily and naturally to be the culmination of the school course.

Limitations of boarding schools. Say what we will about the English school system, we Americans do believe in the best ideals of English education. There is something in "Tom Brown's School Days" which thrills us as schoolmasters even more than when we were schoolboys. We are ready to say, and we generally mean it, that what a man is is of far more consequence than what he knows. We believe that the making of man is the chief end of school work, and we are not unwilling to borrow methods from those who seem to be successful in making a certain type of Englishman.

But notwithstanding our admiration for some things in English education, we cannot accept all that the system implies: class distinctions; "boarding schools for those who are to be leaders in Church and State, day schools of

an inferior sort for the masses;" separation of the sexes whenever possible; interference of a state church; low ideals of scholarship. Some of those we regard not so much a fault of English education as of English life, but bad teaching is certainly the work of poor teachers.

A comparison of types. It has been remarked that in judging a teacher, the German asks, "What does he know?" the American, "What can he do?" the Englishman, "Is he a good fellow?" Dr. Sadler, whose office in England corresponds to that of the commissioner of education in this country, says on this point:

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No schoolmasters in the world lavish more time and thought and strength on the care of their pupils than the English secondary schoolmasters. On what may be called the pastoral side of their office, they are beyond rivalry. . . But because the English secondary schoolmaster so often lives among his pupils from morning to night, he has far less time and strength to spare for professional studies than has his continental counterpart. He is much more the friend of his pupils, and much fresher in his sympathies with the interests of young people. But he is far less of a student; as a rule, is much less learned; and is often a hardened amateur in his methods of teaching. Clumsy, antiquated methods of instruction are far too common in our secondary schools.1

It is for an intellectual tradition, as persistent and congenial as the ethical tradition which characterizes the best English education, that Dr. Sadler pleads:

The development of individual intelligence is largely a question of methods of teaching, but also of choice of studies. Educational efficiency of the best kind depends on having small classes; highly trained teachers; skillful methods of teaching; not too many sub' Dr. Sadler, Special Reports, Vol. IX, pp. 10, II.

jects; the right order of subjects; the right choice of subjects; and the avoidance of hurry; of excessive competition, and of intellectual overstrain. The keen study of methods by teachers is one of the best signs of educational progress. But the aim should be, not to enable the pupil to win a prize or a scholarship by a certain time, or to pass in some competitive examination (though I am far from meaning to imply that all competition is bad or that all examinations could be dispensed with) but to start him in the right way of learning things for himself, to arouse his interest in important subjects, and to give him a sure foundation of accurate and well-directed knowledge Large numbers of our secondary schools are worried by a superfluity of examinations. It would be far better to have some well-defined intellectual aim for each school, and to allow the teachers to work steadily and quietly toward that aim.1

I have quoted thus at length from a high English authority to show how conscious some Englishmen are of the great defects in English education. His verdict is, in a word, (1) low ideals of scholarship and (2) bad teaching. Both lead naturally and inevitably to the curse of examinations systematized and conducted by authority of the state or university.

The American ideal. We Americans are, as Mr. Kipling puts it, "mixed peoples with all the vices of men and boys combined." But along with the vices go virtues, which our schoolmasters steadily keep to the front. We believe in the doctrine of equal opportunity for all men, and for every boy and girl who can use it we believe it an educational ladder reaching from the kindergarten to the university. That ideal at least is not English. We believe in helping each pupil to make the most of his opportunities and to become that which he wishes to be, 1 Dr. Sadler, Special Reports, Vol. IX, pp. 163, 164.

providing his aim is not too obviously harmful to his fellows. We set up no barriers, social or otherwise, to hamper his progress, and we never regard his career as ended until he is safely under ground. There is no "culmination" in American life short of death itself. Our school system, therefore, if it is to fit for American life, can have no bounds. We have no right to speak of the "culmination" of a school course, unless we mean thereby, in college parlance, a commencement.” And least of all should we think of examinations as the culmination of anything educational.

Development of an educational organic unity. Let us reason together about this thing this relic of educational barbarism. It comes to us with the English stamp not yet effaced; it bespeaks a tradition of poor scholarship and bad teaching. It is enforced by institutions which are complacent enough to suppose that scholarships can be erected on a secondary education, the sole guarantee of which is an examination for college entrance, or in lieu thereof, as was once remarked in a meeting of this association, "the good looks of the candidate." Is it not more reasonable to suppose that when we succeed in evolving an American system of education - really American, I mean, not a mere cross or hybrid - it will be a unity, a system necessarily made up of constituent parts, but so nicely adjusted that part will work with part in organic unison? When that time comes I venture to predict we shall hear nothing of examination for admission to any grade or to any school, but much will be said of examinations for instruction and promotion. The elementary school will pass on its pupils into the secondary

speaking, scholars who are let out of one grade or school will admit themselves to the grade or school next higher. Already we hear it said that graduates of any good fouryear high-school course should find a college course open to them. I accept the statement, and should be glad to add to it these words "without examination by college authorities."

A necessary evil. But before these words can be added, the American public must see to it that the highschool course is really good, and that the teachers, in point of character, scholarship, and professional ability, are really worthy of the positions they occupy, and of the hire which they ought to have. In the meantime, it is our duty to be righteously discontented with our present schemes of state inspection, regents' examinations, college entrance boards, and the like, knowing them all to be dispensations of Providence, calculated to keep us humble, and fit us for a more blessed state. The millennium is not yet in sight, but the advance made in recent years in the matter of uniform entrance requirements, and especially in the establishment of the College Entrance Examination Board, is most gratifying. While we are waiting, let us be honest enough to confess that all these examination schemes are devices, as some say, to impress upon a doubting world the great importance of certain indispensable institutions of higher learning, or the acknowledgment, as others declare, of the shortcomings of American secondary schoolmasters.

A problem for solution. To sum up: Examinations