Circular of Information of the Bureau of Education, for Volume 8, PT. 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 Excerpt: ...pupil's work has been what he has done from day to day in his school in the presence of the teacher. An examination may utterly fail to reach that, fail to test the pupil's power to organize, to apply his knowledge, and utterly ignore that large substratum of unconscious knowledge which the pupil possesses. Unconscious knowledge is worth more than all the conscious knowledge any one of us have. It makes no difference about the name, however. That unconscious knowledge which enables usto take facts and use them is the most powerful knowledge we can get. Therefore it seems to me that some fusion of these ideas, some reasonable, centrally connecting link between them, would come nearer to the truth thau what has been uttered from the standpoint of feeling on both sides. Dr. White: I have been interested very much in both of these papers. I think in the discussion of this question we shall simply argue and antagonize if we fail to make a discrimination between the examination and the use made of its results. I don't know any considerable number of teachers or any very eminent teacher that denies the value of the tests as au element of teaching. I think we all agree that the teacher must test, and test wisely, the results of his instruction. So that the examination is an essential element of teaching. The oral recitation, with its test, had a great power. And so the oral test runs through all our teachings; but the written test is more modern, exact, and can be nsed more efficiently. And so the paper I fread this morning covers this truth and shows the examination is a valuable element in school administration. Now, as to the question of the use made of these results. Shall the pupil be permitted, shall the right of that pupil to undertake the work of the next y...