Earlier Standards based on Opinion
One difficulty in dealing with the results of school work has been that schools have had no clear definition of what ought to be demanded. Opinion has been matched against opinion. Thus the parent often feels that he has a right to pass unqualified judgment on the progress of his child and on the teacher’s methods of dealing with him. The employer demands of the boy whom he employs a certain proficiency in spelling and adding. The superintendent, in pursuance of his duties, tells the teachers that their work is satisfactory or otherwise and that the children do or do not read as well as they should. The teacher has a certain expectation, and the pupil feels sure that he is doing his work well. Each, according to his personal standard, is estimating the work done in the school.
Very often these standards differ when applied to one and the same performance; sometimes they differ so radically that social troubles follow. The parent says that his child is doing satisfactory work, while the teacher estimates the work as inferior. In such a case it happens, often after a controversy, that one standard ultimately prevails. It is a matter of record in some communities that the parent’s standard has at times been asserted with enough energy to result in the removal of the dissenting teacher from office. On the other hand, it is more commonly true that the teacher’s standard dominates, and the pupil either changes his ways or fails of promotion. In either case, it would have been better for all concerned if some exact standard could have been set up which would have been recognized as superior in its sanction to individual opinion.
Even teachers of experience disagree in grading the same examination paper. One demands correctness in every detail, while the other concentrates attention on originality and force of expression.