VII DISCUSSIONS ADMISSION TO COLLEGE BY CERTIFICATE University of Wisconsin At the time the system of admitting students on certificate was adopted at the University of Michigan, now more than twenty years ago, the purpose was to bind the university and the preparatory schools of the State into a closer alliance for the purpose of mutual helpfulness. A somewhat thorough study of the systems of admitting students in other countries to the higher institutions of learning, led to the belief that a carefully guarded method, by which pupils of approved schools should be admitted without examination, would prove beneficial to the schools as well as to the university. The system. was constructed in such a way as to throw upon the university the responsibility of examining the school, and also to throw upon the individual school the responsibility for the preparation of the students admitted. It is unnecessary to explain the system in any detail. It is perhaps enough to say that after five years of trial an examination of the records showed that the standing of students admitted by certificate was considerably higher than the standing of those admitted by examination. There seemed, moreover, to be conclusive evidence that the schools were greatly benefited by the arrangement. After the examination of a school, its weak. places were pointed out to the school board, and it was generally found that the boards were very willing to make any changes suggested. In many cases the changes recommended. were of so trifling a nature that they could be made by the teachers themselves without the interference of the appointing authorities. Further experience confirmed the first impressions. The system adopted first in Michigan gradually spread over the Western States, and is now very generally prevalent. I have been from the first an earnest believer in the system, and I believe that history has fully justified the predictions of those who had to do with its first introduction in Michigan. The advantages of it are threefold: In the first place, it relieves the officers of the university of the labor of the preliminary examinations. This point should not receive serious consideration, if it is certain that the examinations so conducted are likely to secure a better grade of scholarship. But to suppose that that is the case would be to ignore or defy the experience of more than twenty years. In the second place, a very great advantage is experienced by the preparatory school. The visit of the committee from the university is an event looked forward to as an affair of great importance to the teachers and pupils. The examination, when properly conducted, includes an inspection of the class work of every teacher and a careful report upon the nature of the work done. Such a visit is, and must be, of the very greatest importance to the school in question. The third advantage is in the fact that all the pupils become accustomed to thinking that the academy or high school is not the end of a good education. A large number who would otherwise complete their school days at the end of the high school course are fired with a desire to go forward to a further term of study in a college or university. These considerations, especially the second and third, are advantages of great importance, and I know of no disadvantages from the system that can, in any true sense, be regarded as of counterbalancing significance. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, CHARLES K. ADAMS MADISON, WIS. Hughes High School, Cincinnati Colleges have adopted one or the other of two plans for the admission of students from preparatory schools; first, by special examination conducted by the college authorities; or, second, by certificate of proficiency from the preparatory school. A generation ago the plan by special examination was in almost universal use in the better class of colleges, but in recent years admission by certificate has become very common even with many institutions of high rank. Although the certificate plan is not yet regarded with favor by some of the older and more conservative colleges, still it is manifestly gaining ground year by year. Does not this fact seem to indicate that the examination plan is not altogether satisfactory? The admission examination is at best a very poor test of the fitness of the student for the college work. It is too often the case that it fails to give any adequate account either of the knowledge or of the power which the candidate possesses, and if it succeed in the former, it is almost sure to fail in the latter. Yet it is worth much more to know whether the student is likely to do the work before him than to know how well he has done the work behind him. A knowledge of the latter does not always include a knowledge of the former. The character and habits, the mental and moral quality of the student, and his working ability, are very important factors in determining whether he is fitted to enter college, and these are hardly touched by the examination. In no well-regulated system of schools would the plan be tolerated at this day of making promotion from grade to grade depend solely upon the issue of a single examination given at the close of the year's work, even though that examination be given by those familiar with the work and methods of the school. This is everywhere acknowledged to be an inadequate and unfair test. The judgment of the teacher and the character of the work already done are recognized as important factors to be taken into account in determining this question. If this is sound educational doctrine up to the close of the preparatory school, why is it not equally sound when we come to determine whether the student who has completed his preparatory course is fitted to pass forward to higher work? The influence of the examination upon the preparatory school is not healthful. It tends to give undue interest to past examination questions and to the study of the idiosyncrasies of examiners, and encourages a too careful estimate of what must be done and what may be left undone in view of the coming test. There is, at least, a strong temptation to give attention to these things at the expense of legitimate work. All this is narrowing and stifling, rather than broadening and developing. This kind of work has very little relation to teaching, properly so called; it is simply preparing for examination, and these are two widely different arts. It is by no means true that the best teacher is always the one whose students are most successful in running the examination gauntlet. This success may be and indeed often is the result of mere routine work, of mechanical drill, of excessive memorizing, rather than of comprehensive and scientific teaching. It must, I think, be conceded that the prospect of an examination to be set by an authority external to the school, prepared by those entirely ignorant of the methods that have been employed and of the nature of the work done-an examination that may mean much in its results to the student and perhaps to the teacher, is not conducive to the most healthy state of mind on the part of the learner nor the best method of teaching on the part of the instructor. I am sure that the college will receive its candidates for admission better taught, better trained, with better and higher aims in their study, and better prepared in every way for the advanced work upon which they are to enter, if the preparatory school can be allowed to utilize its time in some better way than in drilling and cramming for examination. Whatever evils may inhere in the plan of admission by certificate, it certainly is free from those which I have been considering. Of course the certificate plan must include such regulations and restrictions as will protect the higher institution from an influx of ill-prepared candidates. No college that expects to maintain any respectable standard of scholarship could be expected to receive without question every comer from whatever unknown school he may bring a certificate. Public high schools, as well as private academies, are not all of the same rank, and are not capable of doing equally good work. There are schools from which no college worthy the name would be justified in accepting students upon certificate, just as there are colleges, so called (are there not?), whose certificate would not be a passport to any reputable high school or academy. But between the better class of colleges and the better class of preparatory schools, there should be established such a relationship that students may pass from the lower to the higher just as they now pass in our best city. schools from the lower to the higher grades of the same system. This relationship has already been established in many cases, and the testimony shows that it has been attended with good results to both parties to the arrangement. The college has not been overrun with ill-prepared students, and the preparatory school has not only not relaxed its efforts to show itself worthy of the confidence placed in it, but has improved the quality of its work and raised the standard of its scholarship. One of the things especially needed in our imperfectly organized educational system, is a closer connection between the secondary and the higher institutions of learning. Under our present arrangements, the preparatory school and the college too often stand as isolated and independent units, rather than as parts of one related and connected whole. In our public school system, the pupil passes along very naturally and easily until he reaches the end of the high school course; but at that point, if he wishes to continue his studies at some of our older institutions of high reputation, he finds before him a closed door that will open to admit him only after he has submitted to a special test to determine whether he is to be allowed to go forward or whether he is to be turned backward. However well he may have done his previous work, and however deservedly high may be the standing of the school from which he comes, this test is to be the only criterion by which to judge of his fitness to take the next upward step. Is not the judgment of the teacher who has watched the progress of the student for several years, and who is thoroughly acquainted with his character, his intellectual ability, and his previous success in his studies, a better basis. for admission to college than the results of a hurried entrance examination such as is usually given? Or are there not at the head of some, at least, of our high schools and academies men capable of forming on such a question a judgment that is entitled to the respectful consideration of college authorities? If we would render the best service to our ambitious and meritorious young men and women we must make for them an unobstructed pathway from the primary school through the secondary school and the university. No artificial and unnecessary barriers should be allowed to stand in the way of their progress at any stage of their journey. HUGHES HIGH SCHOOL, E. W. COY |