At the outset it may be advisable to sound two notes of warning. One is
against an entire disregard of methods. There are those persons who
believe that teachers are born, not made, and that therefore a
discussion of methods is useless. The born teacher, say these persons,
just teaches naturally according to his own personality. To change his
method would be to destroy his effectiveness. If he isn't a teacher then
the study of methods will not make him one. In either case work done on
methods is lost.
Of course, experience refutes both contentions. It is admittedly true
that great teachers are born to their work--that some individuals just
naturally impress others and stimulate them to high ideals. And yet
there is no one so gifted that he cannot improve through a study of the
game he is to play. Most great athletes are by nature athletic. And yet
every one of them trains to perfect himself. The best athletes America
sent to the Olympic games were wonderfully capable men, but they were
wonderfully trained men, as well. They had studied the _methods_ of
their particular sports. Great singers are born with great vocal
potentialities, but the greatest singers become so as the result of
thorough training. _Methods_ elevate them to fame. What is true of the
other arts ought also to be true of teaching.
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