Excerpt from A Short History of Education: Being a Reprint of the Article Education, From the 9th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica; Edited, With an Introduction, Bibliography, Notes, and References.In this country, the purpose of normal instruction seems to be to prepare young men and women in the shortest and most direct way for doing school-room work. The equipment needed for this work is a knowledge of subjects and an empirical knowledge of methods; and so the normal schools furnish sound academic training, and pupils are taught methods of instruo tion by actual practice in experimental