Caught between the demands of the normative (what they believe they "ought" to be and value) and normalisation (what professional others tell them that they "should" be and value), teacher candidates often experience themselves as belated even though they are newcomers to the profession--simultaneously heirs to a history and new to it. In this paper we illustrate and explore the tensions that result between "new" and "old" in teacher education. Drawing on Lyotard's concept of the differend, we examine the narratives of a practicum triad--one student teacher and his two mentors--as they each attempt to make sense of their irreconcilable differences. We conclude by discussing how the profession might fulfill its obligation to judge the adequacy of new teachers while remaining hospitable to the difference they introduce.