If the Teachers are masters of the situation I wish every teacher in Scotland would get _The New Age_ each week. Orage's _Notes of the Week_ are easily the best commentary on the war I have seen. _The New Age_ is so very amusing, too; its band of "warm young men" are the kind who "can't stand Nietzsche because of his damnable philanthropy" as a journalist friend of mine once phrased it. They despise Shaw and Wells and Webb ... the old back-numbers. The magazine is pulsating with life and youth. Every contributor is so cock-sure of himself. It is the only fearless journal I know; it has no advertisements, and with advertisements a journal is muzzled. * * * One or two bairns are going to try the bursary competition of the neighbouring Secondary School, and I have just got hold of the last year's papers. "Name an important event in British History for each of any eight of the following years:--1314, 1688, 1759, &c." ... and Wells says that teaching is the most creative profession of all! "Write an essay of twenty lines or so on any one of these subjects:--School, Holidays, Examinations, Bursaries, Books." The examiners might have added a few other bright interesting topics such as Truth, Morals, Faith, Courage. "Name the poem to which each of the following lines belongs, and add, if you can, the next line in each case, &c." There are ten lines, and I can only spot six of them. And I am, theoretically, an English scholar; I took an Honours English Degree under Saintsbury. But my degree is only a second class one; that no doubt accounts for my lack of knowledge. That the compilers of the paper are not fools is shown by the fact that they ask a question like this:--"A man loses a dog, you find it; write and tell him that you have found it." The Arithmetic paper is quite good. My bairns are to fail; I simply cannot teach them to answer papers like these. X. I tried an experiment to-day. I gave an exam. in History, and each pupil was allowed to use a text-book. The best one was first, she knew what to select. I deprecate the usual exam. system of allotting a prescribed time to each paper. Blyth Webster, the racy young lecturer in English in Edinburgh University, used to allow us an indefinite time for our Old English papers. I generally required a half hour to give him all I knew about Old English, but I believe that some students sat for five hours. Students write and think at different rates, and the time limit is always unjust. I wish the Department would allow me to set the Higher Grade Leavings English papers for once. My paper would certainly include the following:-- "If Shakespeare came back to earth what do you think would be his opinion of Women's Suffrage (refer to _The Taming of the Shrew_) Home Rule, Sweated Labour, the Kaiser?" "Have you read any Utopia? If not, it doesn't matter; write one of your own. (Note ... a Utopia is an ideal country--this side the grave.)"