[CHAPTER XVII.]
EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. SCHEDULE OF GRADES AND COURSES.
1. All examinations, as projected by the Ratio Studiorum, are conducted by word of mouth. Writing enters the examinations, only when the written word itself is the subject of investigation. Thus, in the grades of the literary course, the composition of the student, from its elementary qualities of spelling, punctuation, grammar, up to the most varied forms and species of style, comes under examination for advancing to the next grade. But even then, after each of the three examiners has inspected carefully the written composition, and consulted the Master's reports of the individual's progress during the year, they call in the writer, submit his paper to him, and subject him to an oral investigation upon it. After that, they proceed to the other branches, all by word of mouth.
In the higher courses, where style is no longer a matter of study, writing never appears in examinations. Written dissertations, special lectures, literary pieces of all kinds, composed for certain occasions, are merely a part thenceforth of the exercises incident to those courses.
To speak here only of Grammar and the Humanities, each new-comer, on presentation of the credentials required, is examined by the Director or Prefect of Studies, who "places him in the class, and with the Professor, adapted to the boy's qualifications; in such a manner, however, that the young person be rather worthy of the class above, than unworthy of the class in which he is placed."[326] It is the remark of the earlier critics, that "severity must be practised in examinations, since it is more injurious for boys to ascend a grade, when not fit, than, if really fit, to be kept where they are; and, in addition to that, if they are advanced when not qualified, they create no slight disturbance in the upper class."[327]
Into the lowest grade, neither youths advanced in age, nor boys of very tender years, are to be admitted. The plea that parents merely want the children to be in good hands is not a sufficient reason for taking them; the only exception is for young boys who are really far advanced for their years.
These conditions of age, and sufficient preparation for entering the classical course, illustrate very distinctly several features of the policy which the Society pursued. Father Joseph Calasanzio, a priest of great zeal, petitioned the Rector of the Roman College, which was flourishing with more than two thousand students, to open some schools for the unprovided children of Rome. There is a Latin word coined from the first four letters of the alphabet, for designating this elementary class of scholars, who are not yet qualified for literature. The word is abecedarii. The term is employed both in the Constitution of Loyola and in the Ratio. The Rector declined. Father Joseph applied to the General Claudius Aquaviva. He too declined; he referred to the Constitution of the Society, which had been distinctly and in all its parts approved by the Popes. Unable to have his idea carried out by the Jesuits, Father Joseph opened his first "Pious School" in Rome, which was soon frequented by 1200 little boys, abecedarii. After the founder's death in 1648, his work spread into the vast system of Scuole Pie. In our times, the revised Ratio of 1832 recognizes the element of Preparatory Departments. It merely requires that they be entirely under the same jurisdiction as the College proper.[328]
Another feature of the policy which these conditions illustrate and which they also further, is that of their tending to discriminate between the right kind of scholars and others, whose circumstances will debar them from ever reaching the ultimate end of higher culture. Where circumstances are not propitious, neither is the culture altogether desirable. For what is more injurious to society at large than to have young people hurt in two ways, positively and negatively; positively, by placing them in a false environment of culture, which cannot be theirs in future life; negatively, by taking up with such culture all the time and labor which might usefully be spent in receiving a plainer education, and reach its term in any commonest walk of life? Besides, the liberal education itself suffers prejudice; for it is misinterpreted; since it comes to be estimated then by results and by circumstances which do not appertain to it. Every system should be set on its own basis, and be built up subject to its own conditions. The absoluteness of Loyola's Constitution throughout, and of the Ratio Studiorum in particular, throws this policy into relief at every turn.
After the boy's admission into a class, he advances thenceforward, either with the whole class, at the general and solemn promotion every year, or, if he excels, as the reports and the Master will determine, he is not to be detained in that grade, but may ascend, at any time of the year, after a fitting examination. A number of conditions, hard to realize, make this special promotion barely possible from the grade of First Grammar to Humanity, or from Humanity to Rhetoric.[329] On the other hand, "if any one is found to be utterly incapable of entering the next grade, no account is to be taken of any petitions."