SMITH SUPPORTS LUND IN ABOLITION OF ALL GRADES, PERCENTAGES

The following article was written for the Crimson by Eugene R. Smith, headmaster of The Beaver Country Day School.

The progressive movement in education has emphasized dealing with the whole life of the pupil. It has recognized the importance of a scientific approach to educational problems. It has urged that pupils should be stimulated to interested self-activity under conditions of reasonable freedom instead of "learning" assigned lessons. Above all it has aimed toward individual development and social adjustment, including intelligent, cooperative citizenship. These aims are now quite generally accepted, so that emphasis changes to examining the implications and practical applications of each ideal.

Marked advances are now being made, and one of the most important of them concerns the study of school children in order to understand their needs and their possibilities. A teacher formerly graded his pupils on the scale of 100. It has been shown that no two teachers, or even the same teacher on two occasions, are likely to give the same numerical rating to the same piece of work. Even the best English teachers have varied 30 per cent or more among themselves in marking compositions.

Reorganize "Markings"

Letter ratings were an improvement because they did not require such impossible exactness. All such ratings, however, have defects when used with school children. They are comparative rather than diagnostic, the comparison being both with a pass mark and with other pupils. They show nothing of the degree of effort, shown, the development the pupil is making, the weaknesses that should be overcome, or the strength that should be recognized.

Such a "marking" has meaning to school executives, parents and the pupils themselves. The brilliant, lazy student does not receive satisfaction from high marks that are inherited rather than earned, and the hard-working, slow pupil receives recognition for his good qualities.

Closely related to this is an increased emphasis on the study of personal characteristics. Schools have over-emphasized subject matter and have been too little concerned with the attitudes developed while in school. Many investigators are at work on personality, trying to discover which are the most fundamental traits, how they can be studied, helped in their development, and recorded. It is already evident that within a short time there will be available sound methods of judging characteristics and recording the information as a basis for helping the individual to make the most of himself.

Entrance Examinations

Because of this and other progress in better understanding of pupils, and also because of statistical proof that entrance examinations are not a very accurate prediction of college success, important modifications are being made in entrance requirements and methods. A strong influence for this change is recognition of the fact that the examinations have largely controlled and inhibited changes in the curricular of secondary schools.

It is now generally conceded that this curriculum is a survival from other times and that it must be revised to fit the present. One suggestion that is being tried includes making a study of mankind's progress and problems a center for much of the course. Another requires of all pupils a general understanding of the methods and the more necessary fundamental skills, ideas and applications of mathematics and science instead of limited fields such as algebra or physics, which would become electives.

The arts are receiving recognition. Music, drama, fine arts and crafts have proved to offer scope for all the individual's ability, and to have something of value for even the least talented pupils. More and more, schools are offering opportunities in them partly because of our added leisure, and partly for their influence and value in developing the individual. Unwise school authorities under financial pressure may exile them temporarily, but the movement toward them is, I believe, too strong to be stopped.

The strongest tendency is for all schools to give greater attention to the discoveries of psychology and pedagogy, and to attempt to keep more nearly abreast of educational knowledge. It may soon be true that all teachers and schools will have become "progressive."