Indeed, it is the function of the skilful teacher to search for such possible nooks and crannies, and fill them up.

It is true that if an examination is to be passed with credit some thinking has to be done.

But the greater part of this thinking must be done by the teacher, the _role_ of the pupil, even when he is an adult student, being essentially passive and receptive.

The pupil must indeed be actively passive and industriously receptive; but for the rest, he must as far as possible leave himself in the teacher's hands.

How to outwit the examiner is the one aim of both the teacher and the examinee; and as the teacher is presumably older, wiser, and far more skilful at the examination game than his pupil, the duty of thinking--of planning, of contriving, and even (in the deeper sense of the word) of studying--necessarily devolves on the former; and the latter, instead of relying upon himself and learning to use his own wits and resources, becomes more and more helpless and resourceless, and gradually ceases to take any interest in the work that he is doing, for its own sake, his chief, if not his sole, concern being to outwit the examiner and pass a successful examination.