Miss Justin was decidedly wrong. Study the methods of such famous
teachers as Mrs. Johnson of Fairhope, Alabama. Conduct tests sometimes
with books open, not to have pupils show off their powers of memory but
to show how they can use books to solve problems and to reveal their
power of doing new tasks. Let the history “exam” be a contest in story
telling: some pupils telling the story completely; at other times have
three pupils tell the story in relays. In German let pupils have all the
books they want but prepare an examination that requires speed so that
amount of accurate work shall be the basis of grading; have more
questions than any one pupil can get over. Divide your class into three
groups, rapid, medium, slow and make allowances for the medium and slow
so that justice shall be done to all.
Do not talk about cheating. There will be no chance to cheat if you
follow the plan just described. Deal with any flagrant case of cheating
with extreme privacy; it is a disgrace to provoke children to cheat and
you should try to hide the affair and save the culprit from yielding to
a similar temptation should you be so unfortunate as to place another
one in his way.