ks purchase and
use of equipment, must be given consideration in some part of the
course. An outline course, with the separate lessons that make it up
should be worked out in detail, for some particular locality,
preferably the one where practice teaching is to be done. This should
then be carefully tested by the criteria of a good biology course, as
pointed out by the best authorities, and by _common sense_. But why
make this skeleton outline beforehand? Why be prepared in anything? It
will be too late to prepare at the moment the problem has to be met.
Few new teachers will find a well planned course awaiting their
arrival in a new field, and without previous experience a new teacher
is likely to build up a course without due respect to relative values
which comes only with a perspective of a course in its entirety. To
illustrate, in the course given by an inexperienced teacher there is
too much chance of six weeks time being spent on the study of the
grasshopper, with only four weeks left at the end of the school year
to be devoted to the biology of the human. The mapping of a course, by
way of practice, gives the prospective teacher practice in the
exercise of judgment, with helpful constructive criticism.

Practice teaching now becomes only the trying out of the course and
accompanying methods. As, one practice teacher remarked when this plan
was suggested "But, I might have to make my course all over." Such
would often be the case. Any wide-awake teacher will change his course
more or less from year to year. Even if the first plan were entirely
discarded the energy and thought prompted by its making would not be
lost. And now let us change the name given to those in charge of
practice teachers. Advisor would be more fitting than _super_visor,
for they should remain in the background except for rendering helpful
service, and making constructive criticism in excess of destructive.

In order for practice teaching to be effective there must be nothing
of an artificial sort enter in. Conditions must be of the regular sort
met every day in the teaching game. This statement seems superfluous,
but a visit to some of the classes where practice teaching is being
done will justify its insertion here. The practice teacher should not
be handed over a laboratory properly equipped. Of course, the
equipment should be available. The course should not be "ready-cut".
The practice teacher must meet _all_ of the problems and this is