The Pursuit of Knowledge by Stephen Leacock

One of the most important subjects which arise under the present discussion is the written examination. I may express it as my opinion that the written examination is the curse of modern education, and I may add that I do not see how we could get along without it. There is nothing which, in and of itself, is so contrary to the true spirit of inquiry, the real search after knowledge. There is nothing so much calculated to substitute the letter for the spirit: to check the ardor of the native eagerness to know: to mislead the feet of the student from the path of knowledge to the steps of the treadmill. The situation is rendered all the worse when the written examination recurs at intervals--generally of an academic year--as a necessary condition of promotion. It becomes for most students a sheer economic necessity to pass the examination: without that, they lose a year, are compelled, perhaps, to abandon their career. They _must_ pass. This superlative necessity overwhelms their minds. It colors all their outlook. As the examination draws near it takes on all the imminence of approaching danger, all the menace of a possible disaster. It is like the roaring of a cataract in the ears of one borne swiftly down the stream.

How can a student think about literature who has to pass an examination on literature? How can a student meditate on philosophy whose meditations must reach a value of fifty per cent or ruin him? Who dare read a book not on the curriculum? Or think a thought that has no value in marks?