[originaltext] Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning

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 hit he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, (33)children learning to do all the other things they learn to do without being taught—to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle--compare their own 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 mistakes and correct them for himself. We do it all for him. We act as if he thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Let him work it out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answers are 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, (34)give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? (35)Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let the children learn what all educated persons must someday learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.