, as a science, it is surprising how soon, with even a little of
this practice-teaching, they acquire the art. If the faculty of teaching
is in them at all, a very few experimental lessons, under the eye of an
experienced teacher, will develop it.

The fact of possessing within one's self this gift, or power of
teaching, sometimes breaks upon the possessor himself with all the force
of a surprising and most delightful discovery. The good teacher does not
indeed stop here. He goes on to improve in his art, as long as he lives.
But his greatest single achievement is when he takes the first
step,--when he first learns to teach at all. The pupil of a Normal
School gains there a start and an impulse, which carry him forward the
rest of his life. A very little judicious experimental training redeems
hundreds of candidates from utter and hopeless incompetency, and
converts for them an awkward and painful drudgery into keen, hopeful and
productive labor.

XXV.

PRACTICE-TEACHING.

One feature of a Normal School which distinguishes it especially from
other schools, is the opportunity given to its matriculants for
practising their art under the guidance and criticism of an experienced
teacher. This practice-teaching is done in a Model School, maintained
for this purpose in connection with the main school. Such is the theory.

But serious difficulties are encountered in carrying the plan into
practical effect, and these difficulties are so great as in some
instances to have led to the entire abandonment of the plan, while very
rarely have the conductors of Normal schools been able to realize
results in this matter commensurate with their wishes or with their
views of what was desirable and right.

Some of the difficulties are the following: Parents who send their
children to the Model School object to have their children taught to any
considerable extent by mere pupil-teachers. The teachers of the Model
School, having little or no acquaintance with the Normal pupils sent to
teach under their supervision, do not feel that entire freedom in
criticising the performance which is essential to its success. The
irregularities produced by these practice-teachings have a tendency to
impair the discipline of the classes in the Model School.

For these and other reasons which I need not dwell upon, I at least have
always been obliged to be somewhat chary in regard to the amount of
practice-teaching that was done in the instit