Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 3; May 02

Are exams child abuse?

Compiled by Mario Rinvolucri

Meeting on July 28th, 1999, the members of the Professional Association of Teachers ( UK), demanded that exams be abolished and claimed that they were tantamount to child abuse. Rosemary Wright, a music teacher from Yorkshire told delegates of the 35,000-strong union at its annual conference at Southport that both the Samaritans and the and the children's helpline Childline were working to help the growing number of parents and pupils for whom exams were a cause of emotional trauma. She expressed concern that the increase in the number of calls to the Samaritans meant that exams have become just another form of child abuse. She proposed that exams should be replaced by a system of continuous assessment.

When children did well at exams, she said, they were confident and healthy. If not, they might be scared stiff. More acceptable were other means of assessment which seemed to be more humane and gave more indication about individuals' qualities.

Another delegate, Philip Parkin, told delegates: " the desire to raise standards has been obsessive. It is stifling creativity and depriving children of their right to a childhood…. There are enough question marks over the efficacy of exams to cause us to ask serious questions about them."

In early July , 1999, a Buckinghamshire coroner said that fear of academic failure lay behind the suicides of students Yolanda Macpherson, 18, and Antony Alderman, 16, who had attended different schools within the county.

The above information comes from a Guardian article dated 29-07-99.

It is worth bearing mind that European culture has long believed in a "hard" vision of education, a vision of education that has much sadism in it. Below are proverbs from various languages that encapsulate a central idea that the humanistic movement totally repudiates:

Catalan: Qui be t'estima et fara plorar ( the one who loves you will make you cry )

English: Be cruel to be kind
Spare the rod and spoil the child
This will hurt you more than it hurts me.

French: Qui aime bien chatie bien ( The one who loves well, punishes well )

Spanish: La letra con sangre entra. ( letters go in with blood )

Dutch: Zachte heelmeesters maken stinkende wonden ( "soft" doctors make stinking wounds)

Latin: Per ardua ad astra ( through hard palces to the stars )