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Let children learn to judge their own work. Achild learning to talk does not learn by beingcorrected all the time; if corrected too much, he willstop talking. He notices a thousand times a day thedifference between the languages he uses and thelanguage those around him use. Bit by bit, he makesthe necessary changes to make his language likeother people. In the same way, when children learnto do all the other things they learn to do without being taught-to walk, run, climb, whistle,ride a bicycle-compare those performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly makethe needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his own mistakesfor himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he wouldnever 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 thehelp 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 theanswer 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 cant find the way toget the right answer. Lets end this nonsense of grades, exams, marks, Let us throw them allout, and let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know. | 
