session that will never pass away. Young people should know this truth in advance. The ignorance of it has probably engendered more discouragement and faint-heartedness in youths embarking on arduous careers than all other causes put together. 10. Habit: Pedagogical Suggestions The fact that childhood is a time of great plasticity suggests at once the importance of this period for forming habits that are for the good of the group. The child is constantly being influenced by both physical and social surroundings. Owning the force of reflex imitation as well as the factor of plasticity, it is doubly important that the child be surrounded with people who possess a good emotional attitude. Every day the child's disposition is being formed. Every day is contributing something to his temperament whether he knows it or not. All of this is taking place as a result of the modifiability of his neurones or their connections. The old adage-"Let the child run until he is seven and you never catch him"-is a recognition of this important effect of the habits of early childhood. 11. Principles Utilized in Developing Skills [BAGLEY, W. C. and KEITH, J. A. H., Introduction to Teaching, pp. 219223. Copyright, 1924, by the Macmillan Co.] (Adapted.) 1. Motivation.-In order to develop the desired skill in an economical way, the teacher should explain to the child the purpose of the experience; how it will help him meet new problems, and situations. In other words, it is desirable that the learner have a motive for doing the task that is to be done. 2. Focalization.-Habits and skills can be built most efficiently when there is intelligent conscious direction in the early stages of their development. The clearer idea the learner gets of what is to be done and how it is to be done, the more quickly and accurately will the new adjustment be mastered. Therefore, the teacher must call the child's attention to the essential elements of the process. Most drill work assignments involve both motivation and focalization of the new process. 3. Attentive repetition.-Practice strengthens the habitbonds, other things being equal. Only attentive repetitions are effective. When practice is done in a listless, careless manner, the errors will be more numerous and only an ineffective habit will be the outcome. 4. In forming habits, no exception to the correct rule should be permitted. Short practice periods during the earlier stages of learning will tend to offset fatigue and lessen the chances of error from this cause. Attentive repetition will also help the individual guard against exceptions or errors in practice. 5. Other things equal, habits are formed more economically when satisfaction or success attends each step of the process. Failure or annoyance accompanying or following the practice tends to prevent or inhibit the establishment of the habit. 12. Thinkers and Attention to Routine [THORNDIKE, E. L., "Education for Initiative and Originality," Teachers College Record, November, 1916, Vol. 17, pp. 405-516.] It is my privilege to know a fair number of original thinkers and workers in science, medicine, the ministry, law, and business. Such men are extraordinarily competent in routine work and extraordinarily strong in mere knowledge. The most original children of my acquaintaince are so not by any denial of the claims of mere lesson-learning, and skill-acquiring in traditional ways. On the contrary, they could beat the pedants and hacks of equal age at their own games. During the past month I have been studying the ratings of sixty electrical engineers employed by the Westinghouse Company and rated by the company's officers for originality and seventeen other qualities, such as thoroughness, knowledge, industry at routine tasks and the like. Far from there being any antagonism between originality and industry at routine tasks. . . or between originality and system, there is a positive correlation. 13. Laws of Routine [BENNETT, H. E., School Efficiency, p. 208. Boston, Ginn & Co., 1917.] The following well-established laws of habit apply fully to the establishing and maintaining of routine: 1. In establishing the habit of routine it is essential that the learner have a clear idea (a) of the thing to be done; (b) of the reason for doing it-and this should be one that appeals to him as a sufficient motive for doing it; (c) of the best way of doing it. 2. There must then be the performance of the act (a) with entire attention to the process; (b) with complete accuracy in every detail, defects being noted and eliminated at each repetition. 3. As mechanical accuracy increases (a) effort will decrease, and (b) attention should and inevitably will disappear. The goal is automatic action with unfailing precision. 4. It is essential (a) that the process be invariably the same; (b) its parts in the same sequence; (c) that attention be recalled to rectify any variation or inaccuracy which may occur. 14. The Value of Habit Habit mechanizes and facilitates reactions, making them accomplish their function with greater efficiency. Habit frees the attention from the process. After a habit has been thoroughly established the activity can be carried on automatically. To project attention into an activity that is normally performed on the level of habit, interferes with the activity. The senior student on Commencement Day walks very awkwardly across the platform in front of the audience because the consciousness of what he is doing interferes with the walking habit. Habit lessens fatigue, makes it possible to accomplish more in a given length of time with less effort, and makes for greater accuracy in the performance. Processes that occur repeatedly and invariably in the same way should be reduced to habit. 15. The Significance of Habits [DEWEY, John, Human Nature and Conduct, pp. 172-177. New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1922.] Habits are conditions of intellectual efficiency. They operate in two ways upon intellect. Obviously, they restrict its reach, they fix its boundaries. . . . Outside the scope of habits, thought works gropingly, fumbling in confused uncertainty; and yet habit made complete in routine shuts in thought so effectually that it is no longer needed or possible. . . . Habit is more than a restriction of thought. Habits become negative limits because they are first positive agencies. The more numerous our habits the wider the field of possible observation and foretelling. The more flexible they are, the more refined is perception in its discrimination and the more delicate the presentation evoked by imagination. . . . Concrete habits do all the perceiving, recognizing, imagining, recalling, judging, conceiving, and reasoning that is done. "Consciousness," whether as a stream or as special sensations and images, expresses functions of habits, phenomena of their formation, their operation, their interruption and reorganization. QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 1. Define habit and contrast it with reflex and instinctive behavior. In what way does the formation of habits promote economy in behavior? 2. In acquiring useful and desirable habits, what general principles are deducible from the facts of nervous action? Of what advantage are habits? 3. Why do habits play an important part in human life? 5. How would you secure a motive for the formation of a habit? 6. In building habits in children, how would you direct their attention to the essentials of the process? 7. How would you hold the children's attention to the task? 8. Why does there seem to be varying rates of progress in the formation of any one habit? 9. Attempt to analyze the reasons why children do not succeed equally well in all cases of habit formation. 10. Why is it most important that all practice of the learner be accurate? 11. What addition should be made to the maxim, "Practice makes perfect"? 12. Justify the following and give an actual example of each: "Habit saves time." "Habit simplifies movements." "Habit lessens fatigue." "Habit diminishes the constant attention with which the act is performed." "Habit makes movements more accurate" (James). 13. Is it better to break a bad habit abruptly or by degrees! 14. How are habits formed most effectively? 15. "The goal of education should be the early formation of the habit of forming habits" (Seashore). List some of the habits that would certainly be included. 16. Why are "exceptions" unfortunate in habit formation? 17. Why are people taught to typewrite without looking at the keys? 18. In what way do children form habits of teasing, obedience, whining, patience, good temper, boldness, etc? 19. Why are habits formed in youth so much harder to break than those formed later in life? 20. Justify the following in terms of the theory of habit formation: "The drunken Rip Van Winkle in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, 'I won't count this time!' Well! he may not count it and a kind Heaven may not count it; but it is being counted none the less" (James). 21. Justify Miss Norsworthy's statement that, "For any desired habit (in children] we cannot trust to mere repetition; it must be repetition with satisfactory results." 22. What psychology is contained in the view, that if we "let a child run until it is seven, we can never catch it"? 23. Can habits be formed after one is thirty? Can one learn a foreign language after that age? Justify your answer. 24. How many teachers of health education develop a "health consciousness" that will tend to find expression in health habits? 25. Are the following good or bad maxims as applied to the formation of habits? Give an example and justify your answer of each. "In all education we should make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy." "We must take care to launch ourselves with a strong and decided an initiative as possible." "Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life." "Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain." "Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day" (James). 26. How should the child be given skill in the application of established rules, principles, laws, etc.? 27. What are some of the reasons that the work of the teacher and parent is often difficult? 28. Give a concrete illustration of the hierarchy of habits. 29. Make a list of habits that are helpful to health or civic efficiency of the individual. List habits that are injurious. 30. Give examples of habits that were formed by a single intense reaction. REFERENCES ANGELL, J. R., Introduction to Psychology (New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1918), Chap. iv. BOLTON, F. E., Everyday Psychology for Teachers (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923), Chaps. vii-ix. BURT, Cyril, The Young Delinquent (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1925), Chap. xi. |