s plan may fail
completely since it is possible to write excellent examination answers
on the subjects named and even to give a prepared lesson reasonably
well without being fitted to undertake the charge of a form. It should
be recognised that the practice of teaching can be acquired only in
the class-room under conditions which are normal and therefore
entirely different from those existing in the practising school of a
training college. When this truth is fully apprehended we may expect
to find that the young teacher is required to spend his first year in
a school where the head master and one or more members of the regular
staff are qualified to guide his early efforts and to establish the
necessary link between his knowledge of theory and his requirements
in practice.

The Departments of Education in the universities should be encouraged
to develop systematic research into the principles of teaching and
should be in close touch with the schools in which teachers are
receiving their practical training.

The plan suggested will be free from the reproach often levelled
against the existing method of training teachers, namely, that it is
too theoretical and produces people who can talk glibly about
education without being able to manage a class. It will also recognise
the truth that the young teacher has much to learn in regard to the
art or craft of teaching and that there are certain general principles
which he must know and follow if he is to be successful in his chosen
work. The application of these principles to his own circumstances is
a matter of practice, for in teaching, as in any other art, the
element of personality far outweighs in its importance any matter of
formal technique or special method. The ascertained and accepted
principles underlying all teaching should be known and thereafter the
teacher should develop his own method, reflecting in his practice the
bent of his mind.

The recognition of a principle does not of necessity involve
uniformity in practice. Freedom in execution is possible only within
the limits of an art. The problem is to define these limits in such a
liberal manner as will allow for variety and individual expression.
The saying that teachers are born, not made, is one which may be made
of those who practise any art, but the poet or painter can exercise
his innate gifts only within certain limits and with regard to certain
rules. It is no less fatal to his art for him to abandon