Such teaching is a travesty on
pedagogy and a sin against childhood.
=Intelligence of teacher.=--If the teacher is consulting her own ease
and comfort, then she will conduct the examination as a test for memory.
It requires but little work and less thinking to formulate a set of
examination questions on this basis. She has only to turn the pages of
the text-book and make a check-mark here and there till she has
accumulated ten questions, and the trick is done. But if she is testing
for intelligence, the matter is not so simple. To test for intelligence
requires intelligence and a careful thinking over the whole scope of the
subject under consideration. To do this effectively the teacher must
keep within the range of the pupil's powers and still stimulate him to
his best efforts.
=Major and minor.=--She must distinguish between major and minor, and
this is no slight task. Her own bias may tend to elevate a minor into a
major rank, and this disturbs the balance. Again, she must see things in
their right relations and proportions, and this requires deliberate
thinking. In "King Lear" she may regard the Fool as a negligible minor,
but some pupil may have discovered that Shakespeare intended this
character to serve a great dramatic purpose, and the teacher suffers
humiliation before her class. If she were testing for memory, she would
ask the class to name ten characters of the play and like hackneyed
questions, so that her own intelligence would not be put to the test.
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