the operator. The report which I have now given of it is as nearly
literal as it is safe to make it.

When the Professor was through, and was about to leave, he asked me
privately to tell him how far he had succeeded in his experiments. Not
wishing to say anything disagreeable, I evaded the question to the best
of my ability, answering with some vague generalities, but indicating
sufficiently that it was not agreeable to be more explicit. He pressed
me, however, to tell him candidly and explicitly whether he had
succeeded, and how far. I then told him frankly that he had failed
point-blank in every case. "Ah," said he, "you are skeptical." "No,
sir," said I, "skepticism implies doubt, and I have no longer any doubts
on the subject. _My skepticism is entirely removed!_"

XXIV.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The term Normal School is an unfortunate misnomer, and its general
adoption has led to much confusion of ideas. The word "Normal," from the
Latin _norma_, a rule or pattern to work by, does not differ essentially
from "Model." A Normal School, according to the meaning of the word,
would be a pattern school, an institution which could be held up for
imitation, to be copied by other schools of the same grade. But this
meaning of the word is not what we mean by the thing. When we mean a
school to be copied or imitated, we call it a Model School. Here the
name and the thing agree. The name explains the thing. It is very
different when we speak of a Normal School. To the uninitiated, the term
either conveys no meaning at all; or, if your hearer is a man of
letters, it conveys to him an idea which you have at once to explain
away. You have to tell him, in effect, that a Normal School is not a
Normal School, and then that it is something else, which the word does
not in the least describe.

What then do we mean by a Normal School? What is the thing which we have
called by this unfortunate name?

A Normal School is a seminary for the professional education of
teachers. It is an institution in which those who wish to become
teachers learn how to do their work; in which they learn, not reading,
but how to teach reading; not penmanship, but how to teach penmanship;
not grammar, but how to teach grammar; not geography, but how to teach
geography; not arithmetic, but how to teach arithmetic. The idea which
lies at the basis of such an institute, is that knowing a thing, and
knowing how to teach that thing to others, are distin