TEXT D Let children learn to
judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected
all the time. If corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand
times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those
around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language
like what other people say. In the same way, when children learn to do all the
other things they learn to do without being taught-to work, run, climb, whistle,
or ride a bicycle. They compare those performances with those of more skilled
people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child
a chance to find out his own mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do
it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake
unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. soon he
becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with
the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what answer is
to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not. If
it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give
him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers
waste time on such routine work Our job should be to help the child when he
tells us that he can’t find a way to get the right answer. Let’s end this
nonsense of grades, exams and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the
children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, that is, how to
measure their own understanding and how to know what they know or do not know.
Let them get on with this job in the way that seems most sensible to them, with
our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of
knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense
in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and
teachers say, "But suppose they fail to learn something essential, something
they will need to get in the world Don’t worry! if it is essential, they will
go out into the world and learn it." Exams, grades, and marks should be abolished because children’s progress should only be assessed by ______.
A.educated persons B.the children themselves C.teachers D.parents