Still another element, apart from the real ability of the pupils,
which is contributory to school failures is found in punitive marking
or in the giving of a failing grade for disciplinary effect. It is
probably a relatively small element, but it is difficult to establish
any certain estimate of its amount. Numerous teachers are ready to
assert its reality in practice. Two cases came directly to the author's
personal attention by mere chance--one, by the frank statement of a
teacher who had used this weapon; another, by the ready advice of an
older to a younger teacher, in the midst of recording marks, to fail a
boy "because he was too fresh." The advice was followed. Such a
practice, however prevalent, is intolerable and indefensible. If the
school failure is to be administered as a retaliation or convenience by
the teacher, how is the moral or educational welfare of the pupil to be
served thereby? It is certain to be more efficacious for vengeance than
for purposes of reforming the individual if employed in this way. The
Regents' rules take recognition of this inclination toward a perversion
of the function of examination by forbidding any exclusion from
Regents' examinations as a means of discipline. Many teachers cultivate
a finesse for discerning weaknesses and faults, without perceiving the
immeasurable advantage of being able to see the pupils' excellences. In
one school there was employed a plan by which a percentage discount was
charged for absence, and in some instances it reduced a passing mark to
a failing mark.
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