I was talking the other day to a lady who had recently been passing her time in preparing lady candidates for examinations. She herself had survived several of these ordeals; and, without falling into the error of those who have eternally saddled on the innocent Tenderden steeple the sole responsibility for the appearance of the Goodwin Sands, it may be casually observed that she was in a frightfully nervous condition, rendering her society a real trial to all but those skilled in the care of nervous invalids. She answered candidly some questions which I had the hardihood to put to her. I give both questions and answers almost word for word:-- _Q._ Which do you consider the cleverest of your pupils; those who pass, or those who fail? _A._ The clever ones fail quite as often as the stupid. Indeed, there are one or two clever ones at this moment whom I am very anxious about. _Q._ How do you explain that? _A._ In this way. When I find a pupil stupid, I just stuff the facts into her. She goes on grinding and grinding until she knows off what is necessary. This cramming is an art. If you know how to do it, you can shove the most stupid people through. _Q._ Then why do the clever ones sometimes fail? _A._ Well, they know most about the subject really, but, as far as I can make out, the examination does not test what you know, still less your general capabilities, but your power of keeping a certain amount of detail in your head for a time and putting it down on paper. People who don’t take it out of themselves with thinking, reasoning, and permanently assimilating, are best able to take in a number of facts after a fashion, and keep them near the surface ready for use. They are better at cramming the particular points that the crammer knows to be of use than the clever people are, and they are generally less sensitive. They are less affected by the weather, and the stuffiness of the place, and all those little things that make so much difference to some people at an examination. Comment is needless. I have had some opportunity of observing the cramming system in Germany, and have been struck by the unsatisfactory nature of the results of what goes by the name of education amongst girls of the well-to-do classes. A German lady, who had had experience as a teacher in a large public school, told me that she considered the present system of teaching an entire mistake. “Look at the results,” she said. “How many German women ever open any book but a novel? What do they care for culture? The teacher has no time to _interest_ the girls in what they learn. All there is time for is to cram them with the facts without which they cannot pass the examination. As if true education could be tested by an occasional examination! And the sacrifice of health amongst these young girls is terrible!”