Chapter IV A Study of Structures
according to four criteria. Though the criteria are by now familiar, it is a new exercise to use them as tools for classification. Any pupil who can complete this task as quickly as the teacher certainly deserves recognition of his progress. 9
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This page demands even more of the student than the preceding page. Can he recast a story from one type of presentation into another? He has knowledge of the existence of the types of presentation and can recognize them when he meets them. But can he perform such a transformation? Can he do it from beginning to end, consistently and correctly? His success here is certainly another proof that he has been made aware of subtle and often hidden attributes of the written language, and that he is beginning to act beyond linguistic boundaries and is reaching new dimensions in written communication. 10 Pages 13 and 14 These pages take this entry into creative writing a little further. The questions are wholly unstructured and concern judgments of taste, of introspection, and of feelings, which on the whole in traditional teaching are left to take care of themselves because teachers believe that young children do not look at themselves enough to reach them. Observers of young children disagree on these matters. The tests are included here because the whole program can reveal that children are unknown to those who teach them and that they are much more competent than anyone ever suspected. Thus, in a way, the tests are also testing the preconceptions of adults as well as the capabilities of children.
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