APPENDIX F.

COUNTY INSTITUTE PAPERS.

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY TEACHERS' INSTITUTE.

THE WRITTEN EXAMINATION.

BY INSPECTOR MERSEREAU.

In these days, the Written Examination has assumed an importance of the first rank. The fitness of candidates for any position in almost every department of human activity is tested by its means. This is especially true of the learned professions. When our pupils leave our schools to begin their life-work, they are confronted on the very threshold of their career by the Written Examination, whether they wish to become doctors, lawyers, clergymen, teachers, or clerks in any branch of the civil service. We see then that the practical needs of life render it imperative for us to make them at home in the Written Examination.

I wish in this paper, however, to consider the matter simply in relation to the assistance which the teacher can derive from it, and to ascertain to what extent he can use it as a device in tuitional work.

The first point to claim our attention is its utility. A good question for the teacher, as well as for the parent, to ask is, "Cui bono"? I will state some of the benefits in the order in which they occur to me, rather than in the order of their importance. 1st. It provides a review of a given amount of work.

2nd. It is a test of the pupil's knowledge and, therefore, of teaching to the teacher and of learning to the pupil.

5th. It leads to concise thinking and readiness in commanding thought.

6th. It develops intellectual sturdiness, or what perhaps might better be called mental energy.

Besides it provides opportunity to put into exercise, no matter what the subject, those branches of knowledge considered most eminently practical, such as Grammar, Composition, Spelling, etc.

I think you will agree with me that any device in school-work that can be made

to produce the desirable results already enumerated is not only worthy of our favorable consideration as an Institute, but is worthy of being used to a much greater extent than is now practised in a large majority of our schools.

The second point to be considered is in what Standards this device can be used to advantage. My own impression is that it is applicable to all pupils in advance of Standard III. of the ungraded course, while pupils in Standard III., and even in Standard II., might derive from it some advantage.

The third and most important part of this subject, and for which the others but clear the ground, is "How are these Examinations to be conducted?" I am not in favor of having them weekly, fortnightly or monthly, or at any fixed time. If pupils know that the last two days in every month are to be devoted to examinations, the anxious ones will approach that period with a nervous dread that will unfit them for profitable work if it will not impair their health, while the indifferent will neglect their lessons for two-thirds of the month knowing that examination day is afar off, and try to compensate by overwork or "cram" during the other third. Besides to examine all the subjects at one time makes a slave of the teacher by giving him an enormous mass of manuscript to read and estimate at once, and forces him either to deprive himself of needed rest and recreation to say nothing of preparation for his daily duties - to read and mark the papers carefully, or to do the work in so hasty and perfunctory a manner as to rob it of all fairness. if not of all value, in the eyes of the pupils. The better way, in my opinion, is for the teacher to determine the time of examination on any subject by the progress of the class in that subject. He knows when a review is necessary and when an oral review will not serve his purpose. Well taught pupils are always prepared for an examination. It would be enough for him to say at any time that the next hour will be devoted to a written review. Paper could be kept on hand, supplied either by the pupils, the trustees or the teacher himself.

Great care should be taken in the preparation of the questions. They should be pointed and clear, requiring short and definite answers, and a searching and thorough test of what the pupils ought to know or ought to be able to do. No question should be given to test merely verbal memory. The teacher should not sit down, pencil in hand, to prepare a set of questions on any subject all at once. He is apt to give undue prominence to his own hobbies, or to run into catch questions or puzzles, and so fail to cover the intended ground. The best way is for the teacher to keep a notebook in which to set down as the teaching proceeds questions which suggest themselves. In this way he will have a number of questions from which to select, and they will be a better test of the actual knowledge of the pupils than could be obtained in any other way - at the same time no lesson should be taught or recited with special reference to answering a question. The aim in teaching is to get the pupils so absorbed in their work that when the day of examination comes they will take pleasure in telling what they know.

It is not well to give too many questions. Ten questions can be made as good a test as fifty. The exercise is necessarily severe, and the time devoted to it should be correspondingly short. Lengthy papers exhaust the pupils in writing them, and

wear out the teacher in examining and estimating them a grinding taskmaster instead of a useful servant.

thus making the examination

Definite values should be given to the questions: that is the sum of the values of all the questions set on any subject should be one hundred, except you wish to allow something for neatness and legibility, when it should be nearly one hundred ; and the value of any one question should represent that part of the fuli paper which properly belor gs to it according to the amount of knowledge and intelligence required to produce a perfect answer. These values need not be given to the pupils. They might be induced to spend most time on those questions that have the highest values, when their actual knowledge and attainments would be better shown by dealing with some of the others.

A certain specified time should be given to each paper. Generally speaking, time enough should be given for the average pupil who has done full justice to his lessons to neatly finish the work; too much time should not be given. It is better to give too little than too much time.

The questions must be answered in good faith. The pupil must depend entirely on himself. When the questions have been carefully prepared and graded to his age, capacity and attainments, and written in plain, definite, simple language, he should be thrown entirely on his own resources to interpret the meaning of the questions, as well as to write the answers to them.

When the time allowed has expired, each pupil, on tap of bell or call of “time," should fold his paper neatly after fastening the leaves together if more than one endorse it properly and hand it to the teacher when he comes down one minute later to collect the papers.

The papers must be carefully corrected and correctly estimated. This work requires skill which can only come by practice. I suggest the following plan: Open the papers and place them in a pile in any order. Then commence with the first question answered on the uppermost paper, and, keeping your judgment well balanced, read and -estimate it, marking carefully all mistakes, and place the proportion of the maximum number of marks assigned to that question which you think it deserves in the margin in red or blue pencil. Move that paper aside and take the same question in the next paper, and so on. When you have gone over all the papers in this way, take the first (or next) question on the last paper and work back over the pile again. In this way you not only get the absolute values of the answers by comparing them with the perfect answer which you have in your mind, but you are able to compare one paper with another, and thus obtain their comparative or relative values as well. You are also able to work more rapidly, as the mind is neither confused nor wearied by constantly changing the basis of comparison.

Before interest in the examination wanes, the corrected papers should be handed back to the pupils. They should carefully correct the errors marked. Then at the first convenient opportunity have one at least of the best answers to each question read before the class. If any pupil has made a very glaring mistake, or has failed entirely to answer a question, require him to write the answer after this review, and if you are not satisfied with the result, have him to write it again and again till you are satisfied.

If the class is young, and not accustomed to written examinations, it would be well to have the whole paper re-written by all but those who made 75 per cent. or upwards of the maximum number of marks. Finally, it would be of great service to the pupils for the teacher to write on the black board (and let the pupils copy them), getting all possible assistance from the class in so doing, perfect answers to the whole series of questions.

This, then, Mr. President and teachers, is a brief outline of what, in my opinion, may be accomplished by means of the written examination. All the subjects of the course, one at a time, would be brought frequently under written review, and thus stamped indelibly on the pupils' minds. There would be no haphazard, indefinite, slipshod teaching. No pupil would be discouraged by being placed in a grade in advance of his attainments. Each pupil, while working well within his powers, would be stimulated to do his best at all times; thus his school life would be pleasant, and his future usefulness as a citizen would be assured.

YORK COUNTY INSTITUTE.

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, B. C. FOSTER, M. A.

When your Executive Committee requested me to address you on this occasion, my first impulse was to decline, both because any ability I may have does not lie in the direction of making addresses, and because I thought that, busy as I would be, especially at this season of the year, I would be unable to prepare an address worthy to be delivered before such a large and intelligent body of teachers as is here assembled. But, reflecting that it was the duty of each member of this Institute to do his best when called upon, and that every earnest teacher ought to have some helpful or cheering words to speak to earnest fellow-teachers, I consented, and thought I could not do better than to direct your attention for a few minutes to the teacher himself, and how his status in the community may be improved.

We talk much, both in Educational Institutes and elsewhere, of the importance of school curricula, of furniture and apparatus, of methods of teaching this or that subject, and we do well. These are, indeed, important subjects of discussion; all these are well worthy our most earnest and careful consideration. But when will the public, when will even our teachers themselves awake to a complete realization of the fact that it is the teacher who is the supremely important factor in education, that without him at his best any educational system must be a failure, and that the supreme effort of all interested in education should be to produce, to retain and to support, under conditions, the most favorable for the full exercise of his powers, that functionary to whom is entrusted the dearest interests of the community—the public school teacher.

That we in New Brunswick are not yet fully alive to this fundamental fact is but too well attested. When the skilled educator of youth is rewarded by a salary less than

the wages of a horse trainer, surely it would be superfluous to enter into an elaborate argument to prove that the teacher's office has not yet been unduly magnified.

And yet, apt as we doubtless are to take a pessimistic view of the situation, it must be admitted that there has been substantial advance in the teacher's status.

From the old-time school-master who "boarded 'round," and whose chief professional qualification was an instinctive knowledge of the weak points of a poor urchin's defensive armor, to the average schoolmaster of to-day, meagre as we are sometimes disposed to think his professional equipment, is a far cry indeed and the poor antiquated female, who presided over the dame-school of our boyhood, presents a sharp contrast to the "sweet girl graduates" which our Normal School is turning out so rapidly to-day.

Seeing, then, that the interests of education are so intimately bound up in the teachers, the consideration of the best methods of obtaining and retaining a more and more efficient class of teachers becomes a matter of the greatest moment, not only to the teachers themselves, but to all interested in the further advancement of education in the Province.

What, then, may be hopefully attempted for the elevation of the teacher, not from selfish considerations alone, but because we perceive that this is the only possible means of building up really excellent educational intsitutions in our midst?

First, there must be created a steady demand for really good teachers — teachers. who have proved their excellence by years of successful educational work. There is no test of a competent teacher but this of experience. Can a teacher teach well? Yes, if he has done it, and not otherwise. "But," says one, "he has an excellent knowledge of the subjects to be taught." Good; but that is no certificate that he can teach one of them. "The lesson he gave at Normal School," urges another," was really of a very high order." Rubbish! What necessary connection has that with what he will do in his own school? The fact is, there is an art as well as a science of teaching, and this is only to be learned by long and laborious practice in teaching.

It does not need high powers of observation to perceive that in some cases little or no discrimination is made between competent and incompetent teachers. Indeed, the useless, indolent teacher is often much more popular than the painstaking, energetic one, because by merely allowing things to drift, and by the judicious use of a little flattery now and then, everybody trustees, parents and pupils are kept in very good humour with themselves, and therefore with the teacher; while one who has attempted to root up any old abuses will have long since discovered that however necessary it may have been, it certainly did not tend to make him inordinately popular.

We complain about low salaries, and there is much reason to do so, but there are some teachers who receive ten times as much salary as they deserve, not that their salaries are large, but that an incompetent teacher is dear at any price, or no price.

What we want first, is not so much larger salaries as an equitable distribution of the money already paid for this service. When a teacher has proved that he can do excellent work in any school or department, his services ought to be recognized by a liberal salary — a salary commensurate with the work he does - while the salary of the