Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education

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OTHER TYPES OF FEELING

=Mood.=--Our feelings and emotions become organized and developed in
various ways. The sum total of all the feeling tones of our sensory and
ideational processes at any particular time gives us our _mood_ at that
time. If, for instance, our organic sensations are prevailingly
pleasant, if the ideas we dwell upon are tinged with agreeable feeling,
our mood is cheerful. We can to a large extent control our current of
thought, and can as we will, except in case of serious bodily
disturbances, attend, or not attend, to our organic sensations.
Consequently we are ourselves largely responsible for the moods we
indulge.

=Disposition.=--A particular kind of mood frequently indulged in
produces a type of emotional habit, our _disposition_. For instance, the
teacher who permits the occurrences of the class-room to trouble him
unnecessarily, and who broods over these afterwards, soon develops a
worrying disposition. As we have it in our power to determine what
habits, emotional and otherwise, we form, we alone are responsible for
the dispositions we cultivate.

=Temperament.=--Some of us are provided with nervous systems that are
predisposed to particular moods. This predisposition, together with
frequent indulgence in particular types of mood, gives us our
_temperament_. The responsibility for this we share with our ancestors,
but, even though predisposed through heredity to unfortunate moods, we
can ourselves decide whether we shall give way to them. Temperaments
have been classified as _sanguine_, _melancholic_, _choleric_, and
_phlegmatic_. The sanguine type is inclined to look on the bright side
of things, to be optimistic; the melancholic tends to moodiness and
gloom; the choleric is easily irritated, quick to anger; the phlegmatic
is not easily aroused to emotion, is cold and sluggish. An individual
seldom belongs exclusively to one type.

=Sentiments.=--Certain emotional tendencies become organized about an
object and constitute a _sentiment_. The sentiment of love for our
mother had its basis in our childhood in the perception of her as the
source of numberless experiences involving pleasant feeling tones. As we
grew older, we understood better her solicitude for our welfare and her
sacrifices for our sake--further experiences involving a large feeling
element. Thus there grew up about our mother an organized system of
emotional tendencies, our sentiment of filial love. Such sentiments as
patriotism, religious faith, selfishness, sympathy, arise and develop in
the same way. Compared with moods, sentiments are more permanent in
character and involve more complex knowledge elements. Moreover, they do
not depend upon physiological conditions as do moods. One's organic
sensations may affect one's mood to a considerable extent, but will
scarcely influence one's patriotism or filial love.

CHAPTER XXX

THE WILL

VOLUNTARY CONTROL OF ACTION

=Types of Movement.=--Closely associated with the problem of voluntary
attention is that of voluntary movement, or control of action. It is an
evident fact that the infant can at first exercise no conscious control
over his bodily movements. He has, it is true, certain reflex and
instinctive tendencies which enable him to react in a definite way to
certain special stimuli. In such cases, however, there is no conscious
control of the movements, the bodily organs merely responding in a
definite way whenever the proper stimulus is present. The eye, for
instance, must wink when any foreign matter affects it; wry movements of
the face must accompany the bitter taste; and the body must start at a
sudden noise. At other times, bodily movements may be produced in a more
spontaneous way. Here the physical energy stored within the system gives
rise to bodily activity and causes those random impulsive movements so
evident during infancy and early childhood. When these movements, which
are the only ones possible to very early childhood, are compared with
the movements of a workman placing the brick in the wall or of an artist
executing a delicate piece of carving, there is found in the latter
movements the conscious idea of a definite end, or object, to be
reached. To gain control of one's movements is, therefore, to acquire an
ability to direct bodily actions toward the attainment of a given end.
Thus a question arises as to the process by which a child attains to
this bodily control.

=Ideas of Movements Acquired.=--Although, as pointed out above, a
child's early instinctive and impulsive movements are not under
conscious control, they nevertheless become conscious acts, in the sense
that the movements are soon realized in idea. The movements, in other
words, give rise to conscious states, and these in turn are retained as
portions of past experience. For instance, although the child at first
grasps the object only impulsively, he nevertheless soon obtains an
idea, or experience, of what it means to grasp with the hand. So, also,
although he may first stretch the limb impulsively or make a wry face
reflexively, he secures, in a short time, ideas representative of these
movements. As the child thus obtains ideas representative of different
bodily movements, he is able ultimately, by fixing his attention upon
any movement, to produce it in a voluntary way.

=Development of Control: A. Ideo-motor Action.=--At first, on account of
the close association between the thought centres and the motor centres
causing the act, the child seems to have little ability to check the
act, whenever its representative idea enters consciousness. It is for
this reason that young children often perform such seemingly
unreasonable acts as, for instance, slapping another person, kicking and
throwing objects, etc. In such cases, however, it must not be assumed
that these are always deliberate acts. More often the act is performed
simply because the image of the act arises in the child's mind, and his
control of the motor discharge is so weak that the act follows
immediately upon the idea. This same tendency frequently manifests
itself even in the adult. As one thinks intently of some favourite game,
he may suddenly find himself taking a bodily position used in playing
that game. It is by the same law also that the impulsive man tends to
act out in gesture any act that he may be describing in words. Such a
type of action is described as ideo-motor action.

=B. Deliberate Action.=--Because the child in time gains ideas of
various movements and an ability to fix his attention upon them, he thus
becomes able to set one motor image against another as possible lines of
action. One image may suggest to slap; the other to caress; the one to
pull the weeds in the flower bed; the other, to lie down in the hammock.
But attention is ultimately able, as noted in the last Chapter, so to
control the impulse and resistance in the proper nervous centres that
the acts themselves may be indefinitely suspended. Thus the mind becomes
able to conceive lines of action and, by controlling bodily movement,
gain time to consider the effectiveness of these toward the attainment
of any end. When a bodily movement thus takes place in relation to some
conscious end in view, it is termed a deliberate act. One important
result of physical exercises with the young child is that they develop
in him this deliberate control of bodily movements. The same may be said
also of any orderly modes of action employed in the general management
of the school. Regular forms of assembly and dismissal, of moving about
the class-room, etc., all tend to give the child this same control over
his acts.

=Action versus Result.=--As already noted, however, most of our
movements soon develop into fixed habits. For this reason our bodily
acts are usually performed more or less unconsciously, that is, without
any deliberation as to the mere act itself. For this reason, we find
that when bodily movements are held in check, or inhibited, in order to
allow time for deliberation, attention usually fixes itself, not upon
the acts themselves, but rather upon the results of these acts. For
instance, a person having an axe and a saw may wish to divide a small
board into two parts. Although the axe may be in his hand, he is
thinking, not how he is to use the axe, but how it will result if he
uses this to accomplish the end. In the same way he considers, not how
to use the saw, but the result of using the saw. By inhibiting the motor
impulses which would lead to the use of either of these, the individual
is able to note, say, that to use the axe is a quick, but inaccurate,
way of gaining the end; to use the saw, a slow, but accurate, way. The
present need being interpreted as one where only an approximate division
is necessary, attention is thereupon given wholly to the images tending
to promote this action; resistance is thus overcome in these centres,
and the necessary motor discharges for using the axe are given free
play. Here, however, the mind evidently does not deliberate on how the
hands are to use the axe or the saw, but rather upon the results
following the use of these.

VOLITION

=Nature of Will.=--When voluntary attention is fixed, as above, upon the
results of conflicting lines of action, the mind is said to experience a
conflict of desires, or motives. So long as this conflict lasts,
physical expression is inhibited, the mind deliberating upon and
comparing the conflicting motives. For instance, a pupil on his way to
school may be thrown into a conflict of motives. On the one side is a
desire to remain under the trees near the bank of the stream; on the
other a desire to obey his parents, and go to school. So long as these
desires each press themselves upon the attention, there results an
inhibiting of the nervous motor discharge with an accompanying mental
state of conflict, or indecision. This prevents, for the time being, any
action, and the youth deliberates between the two possible lines of
conduct. As he weighs the various elements of pleasure on the one hand
and of duty on the other, the one desire will finally appear the
stronger. This constitutes the person's choice, or decision, and a line
of action follows in accordance with the end, or motive, chosen. This
mental choice, or decision, is usually termed an act of will.

=Attention in Will.=--Such a choice between motives, however, evidently
involves an act of voluntary attention. What really goes on in
consciousness in such a conflict of motives is that voluntary attention
makes a single problem of the twofold situation--school versus play. To
this problem the attention marshals relative ideas and selects and
adjusts them to the complex problem. Finally these are built into an
organized experience which solves the problem as one, say, of going to
school. The so-called choice is, therefore, merely the mental solution
of the situation; the necessary bodily action follows in an habitual
manner, once the attention lessens the resistance in the appropriate
centres.

=Factors in Volitional Act.=--Such an act of volition, or will, is
usually analysed in the following steps:

1. Conflicting desires

2. Deliberation--weighing of motives

3. Choice--solving the problem

4. Expression.

As a mental process, however, an act of will does not include the fourth
step--expression. The mind has evidently willed, the moment a
conclusion, or choice, is reached in reference to the end in view. If,
therefore, I stand undecided whether to paint the house white or green,
an act of will has taken place when the conclusion, or mental decision,
has been reached to paint the house green. On the other hand, however,
only the man who forms a decision and then resolutely works out his
decision through actual expression, will be credited with a strong will
by the ordinary observer.

=Physical Conditions of Will.=--Deliberation being but a special case of
giving voluntary attention to a selected problem, it involves the same
expenditure of nervous energy in overcoming resistance within the brain
centres as was seen to accompany any act of voluntary attention. Such
being the case, our power of will at any given time is likely to vary in
accordance with our bodily condition. The will is relatively weak during
sickness, for instance, because the normal amount of nervous energy
which must accompany the mental processes of deliberation and choice is
not able to be supplied. For the same reason, lack of food and sleep,
working in bad air, etc., are found to weaken the will for facing a
difficulty, though we may nevertheless feel that it is something that
ought to be done. An added reason, therefore, why the victim of alcohol
and narcotics finds it difficult to break his habit is that the use of
these may permanently lessen the energy of the nervous organism. In
facing the difficult task of breaking an old habit, therefore, this
person has rendered the task doubly difficult, because the indulgence
has weakened his will for undertaking the struggle of breaking an old
habit. On the other hand, good food, sleep, exercise in the fresh air,
by quickening the blood and generating nervous energy, in a sense
strengthens the will in undertaking the duties and responsibilities
before it.

ABNORMAL TYPES OF WILL

=The Impulsive Will.=--One important problem in the education of the
will is found in the relation of deliberation to choice. As is the case
in a process of learning, the mind in deliberating must draw upon past
experiences, must select and weigh conflicting ideas in a more or less
intelligent manner, and upon this basis finally make its choice. A first
characteristic of a person of will, therefore, is to be able to
deliberate intelligently upon any different lines of action which may
present themselves. But in the case of many individuals, there seems a
lack of this power of deliberation. On every hand they display almost a
childlike impulsiveness, rushing blindly into action, and always
following up the word with the blow. This type, which is spoken of as an
impulsive will, is likely to prevail more or less among young children.
It is essential, therefore, that the teacher should take this into
account in dealing with the moral and the practical actions of these
children. It should be seen that such children in their various
exercises are made to inhibit their actions sufficiently to allow them
to deliberate and choose between alternative modes of action. For this
purpose typical forms of constructive work will be found of educational
value. In such exercises situations may be continually created in which
the pupil must deliberate upon alternative lines of action and make his
choice accordingly.

=The Retarded Will.=--In some cases a type of will is met in which the
attention seems unable to lead deliberation into a state of choice. Like
Hamlet, the person keeps ever weighing whether _to be or not to be_ is
the better course. Such people are necessarily lacking in achievement,
although always intending to do great things in the future. This type of
will is not so prevalent among young children; but if met, the teacher
should, as far as possible, encourage the pupil to pass more rapidly
from thought to action.

=The Sluggish Will.=--A third and quite common defect of will is seen
where the mind is either too ignorant or too lazy to do the work of
deliberating. While such characters are not impulsive, they tend to
follow lines of action merely by habit, or in accordance with the
direction of others, and do little thinking for themselves. The only
remedy for such people is, of course, to quicken their intellectual
life. Unless this can be done, the goodness of their character must
depend largely upon the nobility of those who direct the formation of
their habits and do their thinking for them.

=Development of Will.=--By recalling what has been established
concerning the learning process, we may learn that most school
exercises, when properly conducted, involve the essential facts of an
act of will. In an ordinary school exercise, the child first has before
him a certain aim, or problem, and then must select from former
experience the related ideas which will enable him to solve this
problem. So far, however, as the child is led to select and reject for
himself these interpreting ideas, he must evidently go through a process
similar to that of an ordinary act of will. When, for example, the child
faces the problem of finding out how many yards of carpet of a certain
width will cover the floor of a room, he must first decide how to find
the number of strips required. Having come to a decision on this point,
he must next give expression to his decision by actually working out
this part of the problem. In like manner, he must now decide how to
proceed with the next step in his problem and, having come to a
conclusion on this point, must also give it expression by performing
the necessary mathematical processes. It is for this reason, that the
ordinary lessons and exercises of the school, when presented to the
children as actual problems, constitute an excellent means for
developing will power.

=The Essentials of Moral Character.=--It must be noted finally, that
will power is a third essential factor in the attainment of real moral
character, or social efficiency. We have learned that man, through the
possession of an intelligent nature, is able to grasp the significance
of his experience and thus form comprehensive plans and purposes for the
regulation of his conduct. We have noted further that, through the
development of right feeling, he may come to desire and plan for the
attainment of only such ends as make for righteousness. Yet, however
noble his desires, and however intelligent and comprehensive his plans
and purposes, it is only as he develops a volitional personality, or
determination of character which impels toward the attainment of these
noble ends through intelligent plans, that man can be said to live the
truly efficient life.

Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.

In this connection, also, we cannot do better than quote Huxley's
description of an educated man, as given in his essay on _A Liberal
Education_, a description which may be considered to crystallize the
true conception of an efficient citizen:

That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so
trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will,
and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism,
it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine,
with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order;
ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and
spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose
mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths
of nature, and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted
ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained
to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender
conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature
or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.

CHAPTER XXXI

CHILD STUDY

=Scope and Purpose of Child Study.=--By child study is meant the
observation of the general characteristics and the leading individual
differences exhibited by children during the periods of infancy,
childhood, and adolescence. Its purpose is to gather facts regarding
childhood and formulate them into principles that are applicable in
education. From the teacher's standpoint, the purpose is to be able to
adapt intelligently his methods in each subject to the child's mind at
the different stages of its development.

In the education of the child we have our eyes fixed, at least partly,
upon his future. The aim of education is usually stated in terms of what
the child is to _become_. He is to become a socially efficient
individual, to be fitted to live completely, to develop a good moral
character, to have his powers of mind and body harmoniously developed.
All these aims look toward the future. But what the child _becomes_
depends upon what he _is_. Education, in its broadest sense, means
taking the individual's present equipment of mind and body and so using
it as to enable him to become something else in the future. The teacher
must be concerned, therefore, not only with what he wishes the child to
_become_ in the future, but also with what he _is_, here and now.

=Importance to the Teacher.=--The adaptation of matter and method to the
child's tendencies, capacities, and interests, which all good teaching
demands, is possible only through an understanding of his nature. The
teacher must have regard, not only to the materials and the method used
in training, but also to the being who is to be trained. A knowledge of
child nature will prevent expensive mistakes and needless waste.

A few typical examples will serve to illustrate the immense importance a
knowledge of child nature is to his teacher.

1. As has been already explained, when the teacher knows something about
the instincts of children, he will utilize these tendencies in his
teaching and work with them, not against them. He will, wherever
possible, make use of the play instinct in his lessons, as for example,
when he makes the multiplication drill a matter of climbing a stairway
without stumbling or crossing a stream on stones without falling in. He
will use the instinct of physical activity in having children learn
number combinations by manipulating blocks, or square measure by
actually measuring surfaces, or fractions by using scissors and strips
of cardboard, or geographical features by modelling in sand and clay. He
will use the imitative instinct in cultivating desirable personal
habits, such as neatness, cleanliness, and order, and in modifying
conduct through the inspiring presentation of history and literature. He
will provide exercise for the instinct of curiosity by suggesting
interesting problems in geography and nature study.

2. When the teacher understands the principle of eliminating undesirable
tendencies by substitution, he will not regard as cardinal sins the
pushing, pinching, and kicking in which boys give vent to their excess
energy, but will set about directing this purposeless activity into more
profitable channels. He will thus substitute another means of
expression for the present undesirable means. He will, for instance,
give opportunity for physical exercises, paper-folding and cutting,
cardboard work, wood-work, drawing, colour work, modelling, etc., so far
as possible in all school subjects. He will try to transform the boy who
teases and bullies the smaller boys into a guardian and protector. He
will try to utilize the boy's tendency to collect useless odds and ends
by turning it into the systematic and purposeful collection of plants,
insects, specimens of soils, specimens illustrating phases of
manufactures, postage stamps, coins, etc.

3. When the teacher knows that the interests of pupils have much to do
with determining their effort, he will endeavour to seize upon these
interests when most active. He will thus be saved such blunders as
teaching in December a literature lesson on _An Apple Orchard in the
Spring_, or assigning a composition on "Tobogganing" in June, because he
realizes that the interest in these topics is not then active. Each
season, each month of the year, each festival and holiday has its own
particular interests, which may be effectively utilized by the
presentation of appropriate materials in literature, in composition, in
nature study, and in history. A current event may be taken advantage of
to teach an important lesson in history or civics. For instance, an
election may be made the occasion of a lesson on voting by ballot, a
miniature election being conducted for that purpose.

4. When the teacher appreciates the extent of the capacities of
children, he will not make too heavy demands upon their powers of
logical reasoning by introducing too soon the study of formal grammar or
the solution of difficult arithmetical problems. When he knows that the
period from eight to twelve is the habit-forming period, he will
stress, during these years such things as mechanical accuracy in the
fundamental rules in arithmetic, the memorization of gems of poetry, and
the cultivation of right physical and moral habits. When he knows the
influence of motor expression in giving definiteness, vividness, and
permanency to ideas, he will have much work in drawing, modelling,
constructive work, dramatization, and oral and written expression.

METHODS OF CHILD STUDY

=A. Observation.=--From the teacher's standpoint the method of
observation of individual children is the most practicable. He has the
material for his observations constantly before him. He soon discovers
that one pupil is clever, another dull; that one excels in arithmetic,
another in history; that one is inclined to jump to conclusions, another
is slow and deliberate. He is thus able to adapt his methods to meet
individual requirements. But however advantageous this may be from the
practical point of view, it must be noted that the facts thus secured
are individual and not universal. Such child study does not in itself
carry one very far. To be of real value to the teacher, these particular
facts must be recognized as illustrative of a general law. When the
teacher discovers, for instance, that nobody in his class responds very
heartily to an abstract discussion of the rabbit, but that everybody is
intensely interested when the actual rabbit is observed, he may regard
the facts as illustrating the general principle that children need to be
appealed to through the senses. Likewise when he obtains poor results in
composition on the topic, "How I Spent My Summer Holidays," but
excellent results on "How to Plant Bulbs," especially after the pupils
have planted a bed of tulips on the front lawn, he may infer the law,
that the best work is obtained when the matter is closely associated
with the active interests of pupils. By watching the children when they
are on the school grounds, the teacher may observe how far the
occupations of the home, or a current event, such as a circus, an
election, or a war, influences the play of the children. Thus the method
of observation requires that not only individual facts should be
obtained, but also that general principles should be inferred on the
basis of these. Care must be taken, however, that the facts observed
justify the inference.

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