There is no way of escaping examinations. But only weak teachers resort
to the old-fashioned typical memory test as their main stay for
examination. With very moderate inventive powers a teacher can easily
rise far above the level of prying bits of formal knowledge out of a
child’s brain by means of set questions. Many an examination can be
passed through with the pupil unaware of the fact that he has been
examined. The problems have been so dressed up as to become discussions,
reports or even questions proposed by the pupils. It often takes as much
information to ask detailed questions as it does to answer them. By
sharing the dignity of asking test questions, pupils come to enjoy the
“game” of the day and refuse to consider unfair means.
Miss Justin did not make nearly enough of such pupils as Phronsie. The
honest, painstaking pupils are usually far more numerous than they are
supposed to be. Every one of them must be yoked into the school “team,”
so that the pull of the careless ones will have very little effect.
Sometimes, indeed, a pupil’s influence will do even more than the
teacher’s to eliminate the habit of cheating, as in the case cited
below.