EDUCATION.

Southland Times, Issue 878, 8 January 1868, Page 2

EDUCATION.

(TO TfIEEDITOKOF THE SOPXffLAND TIMES.) Sib, — At the present time when examinations of Grammar Schools and l Academies are the order of the day, it may be of some service to present to your readers the following extract from a speech of the Eev. 1\ C. Simons, Sector of the High School, Dunedin, on the occasion of the annual distribution of prizes to the pupils of that institution of the effect of public examinations — conducted as they are generally by members of another profession, who maybe altogether unaequaiuted with the simplest elements of the pedagogic science and its various applications— l have had the experience of more than a quarter of a century, and I must say that, excepting for jiasli purposes, they are most detrimental both to the teacher and the scholar. The common sense of. the remarks of Mr Simmons must commend itself to the approbation of all sober judging and right thinking men. The teachers are the best judges of their work, and it is a degradation to the clerical profession to be used as tools in examining classes with the view to the advancement of the worldly interests of the teacher, or to his love of seeing the results of his labors duly chronicled and, '. bepraised in the columns of a newspaper. The following is the extract alluded to :— "He (Mr Simmons) had been very often asked, why they did not make an annual exhibition of the beys in the High School ; and he would now state why such a course was not adopted. He thought it an exceedingly bad thing, for masters to ' ' cram boys for an examination. It was unjust to the master who desired to do his work thoroughly ; it forced into a position of very unfair apparent advantage, the man who would condescend to do; mere surface work. It wa3 bad for the boys : those who came forward at such examinations were r.ither the impudentlyinclined boys, than the thoughtful, bashful ones — those whom the masters had been, or should have been, trying to encourage during the year. The prizes would not, as a rule, at such examinations, go to the really best boys— the morally good, rather than the merely intellectual Boys themselves thought little of masters who set to work to prepare them for mere examination. In reality, boys could be worked up to any degree of polish a master pleased, for- such a purpose. But it would be surface work only. The result would be no more real than it was with the children of whom the story was told, that - they ' passed a capital examination' in Sacred History, Theology, and other subjects, but stuck fast in the middle of the Belief, which they were repeating in sentences, or parts of sentences. ' How is this?' was asked by the examiner. 'Oh! Sir, the boy who says 'Pontius Pilate/ isn't here to-day,' was the explanation." Again, he says : — " Exhibitions „of precocity might be encouraged; but but that would be to encourage flashy masters and flashy boys, and to place at a disadvantage the patient subsoil tiller, who desired to do everything thoroughly. Schiller's story of the man's garden and the boys' garden was well in point. Children, he said, plucked branches and flowers, and thrust them into the earth, and for a short time had a brilliant show : the gardener worked for days and for months,' and showed nothing, perhaps, but his was the fruitful work. He (the Kector) could not think that anything that tended simply to an exhibition was valuable ; and as long as he had anything to do with the High School, he could not do anything which he considered wrong in education." — I am, Sir, yours, &c, Aoti-Flash. ♦