ests of education do not require some limitation to this movement. If it be true, as most persons will probably admit, that females have superior aptitude for certain departments and situations in teaching and disciplining, is it not equally true that males have superior aptitude for other departments and situations?

The want of success, whether in respect to male or female teachers, taken in the mass, is due not so much to the want of natural aptitude as to want of special preparation and of adequate experience. The great obstacle to the acquirement of the needed experience on the part of females is in the shortness of the period of their service, and this again is the reason why they do not make a more thorough prepara tion for the work.

It is a noticeable fact that during the decade that has elapsed since the above suggestions were published by the board of education there has been no further increase in the proportion of female teachers employed in the public schools of the State, while previously there had been a constant increase from year to year for upwards of thirty years. Of late years this subject has been considerably discussed in the New England Association of School Superintendents, and this body has expressed its opinion emphatically in favor of the employment of a larger proportion of male teachers.

There is, without doubt, a growing conviction among our prominent educators that a very considerable increase in the proportion of male teachers is a needed reform in our school economy. It is argued that teaching as a career. as a life work-is a necessary condition of the best results of teaching. With women, teaching is a temporary occupation, and this must be the case so long as they are required by social customs and sentiments to retire from the service as soon as they are married. The only effectual remedy, therefore, for the defects and imperfections inseparable from teaching pursued as a temporary occupation, as a makeshift, is the employment of a larger proportion of male teachers who shall devote themselves to the profession as a life work after having made the requisite preparation therefor and given satisfac tory proof of competence. But a larger proportion of male teachers is desirable, not merely as a means of realizing the advantages of experience in teaching and that efficiency which comes from teaching as the one aim of life; it is desirable also because the instruction and training of boys above ten or eleven years of age requires the handling of a mas ter rather than that of a mistress. It has been asserted by some who claim for women superiority over men in respect to aptitude for teaching that insufficiency of salary accounts largely for their non-continuance in the occupation of teaching. Experience, however, does not justify this assertion. In some quarters it has been claimed that the salaries of teachers of the same grade should be equal, without regard to sex. It is, however, a principle tolerably well recognized in pedagogy that, where the salaries of the sexes are equalized and the rate is high, the men displace the women, and where the rate is low the reverse happens: the women displace the men.

EXAMINATION OF SCHOOLS.

In considering this subject it seems desirable to define at the outset what is meant by an examination of schools, as distinguished from what is meant by an inspection of schools.

An inspection is a visitation for the purpose of observation, of oversight, of superintendence. Its aim is to discover, to a greater or less extent, the tone and spirit of the school, the conduct and application of the pupils, the management and methods of the teacher, and the fitness and condition of the premises. Good inspection commends excellences, gently indicates faults, defects, and errors, and suggests improvements as occasion requires. By the expectation of visits of inspection of the right sort, teachers are stimulated to fidelity and to efforts for advancement in efficiency. While inspection has for its object, in some measure, to stimulate, encourage, and guide both teachers and pupils, this is not the limit of its scope. It has another important purpose, namely, that of enabling the inspector to acquire valuable information as a basis for action in the administration of the system. But inspection does not undertake to apply tests to teachers or pupils, to be followed by serious sanctions. Its object is general rather than special. It is best that inspections should be made without previous notice and that they should be made by competent and experienced experts; but inspection by intelligent and judicious non-experts may be highly beneficial. The principals of schools should frequently inspect the classes for which they are responsible; the superintendent should, as often as practicable, inspect all the schools under his charge; and, of course, inspection is one of the duties of school committees.

An examination is different from an inspection, both in its aims and methods. An examination is a thorough scrutiny and investigation, in regard to certain definitely determined matters, for a specific purpose. It should proceed according to a prearranged scheme and it should not omit any element in the scheme. It seeks positive evidence and exact information in regard to all the matters comprised within its scope. Nor is this all. An examination not only implies the acquisition of facts within a prescribed sphere, but it also implies a weighing and considering of those facts and the making of a judgment upon them. The object of the examination is to arrive at a just estimate of merit or attainments or progress. This judgment, or estimate, then, constitutes the essence of examination, for it is the basis of awards which are of the highest importance to both teachers and pupils.

All examinations affect more or less both teachers and pupils; but, considered with reference to the chief objects to be accomplished, examinations of schools and classes are of the three following kinds: I. Examination of classes, to ascertain their progress and to deter mine the rank of the pupils composing the class.

II. Examination of pupils for promotion, for graduation, and for distinctions or honors.

III. Examinations of schools and classes with reference, mainly, to the merit and standing of the teachers.

As the objects of these examinations differ, so must their methods differ, and they must be conducted by different classes of examiners. The general principle as to the qualifications of the examiner is that he should be competent and disinterested as to the result. He should know what facts to seek; he should be capable of estimating them at their true value; and, above all, he should have no relation of interest or feeling to warp his judgment.

I proceed to consider the three kinds of examination in the order above named:

I. The examination of pupils, to test their progress or to determine their rank, which I call class examination, has been of late quite extensively adopted, and in many places it appears to have been pushed to an injudicious extreme. This examination should be conducted by the class teacher, but under the supervision of the principal. If the examination is to be merely a test of progress, it may be, and, indeed, should be, both written and oral; but, if it is to determine rank, it becomes essentially a competitive examination, and must, therefore, be conducted in writing, except in branches to which this method is inapplicable; otherwise all the pupils are not subjected to the same test. It is obvious that an examination for the purpose of ranking should comprise all the branches taught; and here the difficult thing to do is to assign to the result in each branch its just relative value; that is, to determine what shall be the maximum mark or number for each branch. Perhaps the best criterion for determining this matter is the relative amount of time assigned to the respective branches in the program.

The class examination seems to have been introduced as a remedy for the evils of the marking system. But in some cases has not this class examination become an evil as great as that it was intended to remedy? When pushed to excess, the examining and marking of papers by teachers becomes an intolerable burden, and the pupils waste their time in giving proofs of their ignorance. The better plan would seem to be to combine judiciously the system of marking lessons with the system of examining for rank, pushing neither to an extreme. But I am inclined to think that the marks for conduct should in no case be combined with the marks for scholarship in determining the rank of pupils or in determining their promotion, unless promotion is based on a competitive examination and in a particular case the scholarship marks of two competitors are equal, but their conduct marks unequal: for conduct marks and scholarship marks are not commensurable, any more than yards and pounds.

II. Examination of pupils for promotion, for graduation, and for distinctions or honors.

1. Examination for promotion: This examination should be conducted by the principal, under general regulations and supervision, and with

the coöperation and advice of the class teacher. To take this authority from the principal is to deprive him of one of his most important functions. Promotions considered with reference to examinations may be of three kinds:

(a) Promotion of the class en masse or by seniority, without a serious test examination.

(b) The system of individual promotion by capacity. By this system the best in each class are promoted at any time when there is room in the class above. This amounts to promotion by competitive examination, and one of the essential things in a competitive examination is that the conditions be made known before the race begins. So from the outset of the preparation the competitors should be informed definitely as to the nature of the ordeal, namely, on what subjects they are to be examined, whether the sum of the class marks is to be the criterion, or whether the examinations alone are to be considered, or whether class marks and examinations marks are to be combined, and in what proportion. This examination should be conducted by the teachers of the competitors, as they alone know with accuracy what has been taught, but under the supervision of an impartial umpire. And it should be conducted in writing so far as this method is applicable.

(c) Promotion by examination of passage. By this system the identity of the class is preserved, as far as practicable, by simultaneous promotions; every member is subjected to a serious examination as a test of fitness for advancement. The results of this examination, com. bined with the lesson marks, determine the promotions, those pupils only who fall below a reasonable minimum being obliged to repeat the course of the class. To perfect this system the principal must, as occasion requires, exercise the prerogative of allowing exceptionally able pupils to "jump" a class and of degrading those who are exceptionally delinquent; that is, he must make some individual promotions. The class examination above referred to will give seasonable intimations to the pupils of their probable standing at the examination of passage, and thus afford them an opportunity to recover lost ground. By this system, which seems to me the best, while an examination is required, it is not a competitive examination, where only a minimum result is requisite for passing. Hence, the examination may be either written or oral or both. In all examinations which are not competitive it is desirable that both written and oral tests should be applied; for some pupils are strong on paper and weak in speech and others are weak on paper but strong in speech, and the examination should afford each an opportunity to show his real ability, since in an examination for promotion the point aimed at is not to know whether the pupil can answer on all the details of the matters taught, but whether he is capable of taking the higher stage with profit to himself and without detriment to the class.

The examination for transfer from one grade of schools to another (that is, from the primary to the grammar and from the grammar to the

high) ought to be conducted on the same principle as that for the pas sage from a lower class to a higher in the same grade of schools, but the control of this examination should be in the hands of an authority independent of both the grades concerned. The principals of both the grades, however, should be called in as advisory assistants. From the principal of the grade from which the transfer is to be made, the candidate's record should be required, and a certificate of probable fitness; from the principal of the grade to which the transfer is to be made, advice should be had and considered as to the minimum of requirement allowable for admission; that is, as to the character of the questions and the minimum mark for passing.

2. Examination for graduation. Here the principal should coöperate so far as to furnish the list of all the pupils entitled to be candidates, the scholarship marks of each, and his opinion of their maturity. But the actual examination ought to be under the control and management of the superintending authority, because, in a system of schools, it is desirable that all the diplomas of the same grade should have a uniform value; and this could not be the case if each principal should make his own standard. As a matter quite of course, the result of the examination should be combined with the record of scholarship. And it is desirable that the examination should be both oral and written. It is essential that the examination should cover all the subjects of the program of the graduating class, but not all the topics; nor should it go back to the matters of the preceding class, as they have been already satisfactorily passed. And in all sound educational economy some privilege of obliv ion must be permitted to students. Nothing is more to be deprecated in the matter of test examinations than to demand of the examinees readiness in all they have ever studied.

Examination for graduation, as in the case of examination for promotion, should never be competitive, only a certain minimum of qualification being demanded. The level of this minimum must, of course, be raised as high as the best good of all requires. The graduating examination should be in accord with the program; that is, it should conform to the program both in respect to spirit and scope. The ranking of graduates according to their marks renders the examination in effect competitive. This is practised to some extent in western cities in connection with high school graduation. Its effect on girls, according to my observation, is decidedly injurious.

It is well known that school authorities sometimes fix in advance the percentage of mark requisite for promotion or graduation. Is not this highly unpedagogical? Of what avail is it to fix the minimum percentage before you know the character of the questions or the degree of strictness in marking?

3. Under the second class of examinations there is only one more variety to consider, namely, the examination for distinctions or honors.