60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the welfare and progress of the children. To attempt to give, in 

 this article, details as to the methods of securing real practice 

 teaching, and yet conserve the interests of the children, is not 

 practicable. That these objects are attained is evidenced by two 

 facts, — the practice school is popular with the city patrons, and 

 the term of practice work is generally regarded by Oswego gradu- 

 ates as the most valuable in their entire course. It is justly so 

 regarded ; for five months of teaching under searching but kindly 

 and constructive criticism may be worth more than years of un- 

 aided experience. The critic teachers, while employees of the city 

 Board of Education and responsible to them for the discipline and 

 progress of the city pupils, are chosen and nominated by the State 

 Normal School authorities, and are responsible to them for the 

 normal practice teachers. This arrangement gives opportunity for 

 difficulty and friction ; but there has been little serious trouble at 

 Oswego, a fact which speaks volumes for the good sense and tact 

 of all concerned. The executive ability and teaching power re- 

 quired to drill a succession of inexperienced teachers, and during 

 this process to work through these teachers the same or better 

 discipline and teaching than prevails in the other city schools, can 

 be better imagined than described. Whether the saying, "A 

 teacher is born and not made," is true in all branches of the pro- 

 fession or not, it certainly is true of the critic teachers of a great 

 practice school. 



On the second floor of the building are eight recitation rooms, 

 seating from fifty to one hundred students, devoted to mathemat- 

 ics, language, history, etc., and supplied with maps, charts, models, 

 ample blackboards, and abundant light. The reading room and 

 library on this floor have the standard periodicals and well-se- 

 lected books. The visitor can not forbear the wish that some of 

 the thousands yearly wasted by New York State could be used to 

 increase this library ; yet smallness is not an unmixed ill for a 

 school library if the books are the best of their kind, and the lim- 

 ited number secures concentration of attention and thorough ac- 

 quaintance. The Oswego School Library is supplemented by the 

 City Library, whose volumes are accessible to the normal students. 



The Normal Assembly Hall occupies the entire upper portion of 

 the west wing. This wing, although of the same height as the main 

 part of the building, is divided into but two stories above the gym- 

 nasium, thus securing extra height of ceiling for the assembly 

 rooms of the practice school below and for the Normal Hall above. 

 This hall is sixty-eight by seventy-six feet, seated for four hun- 

 dred students, -and has a capacity for three hundred additional 

 seats on public occasions ; it has large windows on three sides, and 

 plain but tasteful coloring and decoration. 



The third floor is the domain of the natural-science department 



