Snt,—I should like to draw the attention of the Master
of Balliol to the present position of marks in the educational system: marks, apparently a mere fiction, exert a very real power : they compel both teacher and pupil to a high degree of activity: they are a dominating system ; and they are most effective in subjects where the acquisition of facts is important. It is easy to see that imaginative teaching is crippled when marks have to be awarded ; and that the number of these lessons tends to decrease. Finally, when school days are over, and the stimulus of marks has gone, the boy drops school subjects like a hot brick. I believe that the system which substitutes marks for interest in the subject is the main cause of those evils that the Master of Balliol recognises and deplores.
And now it is intended to extend this system to games and sport! The effect will be to remove half the fun, and to excite competition, so that more and more time and energy will be spent in stereotyped athletic training. The little finger of the County Badgers is likely to prove thicker than the loins of the present system: whilst time and inclination for really cultural activities, which are scarce enough now, will cease to exist. I can see no defence for this attempt to extend the two elements of our educational system that are directly anti-Christian, namely competition and materialistic rewards.—Yours
Previous page
