PART IV

SOME HABITS OF MIND--SOME MORAL HABITS

A science of education--Education in habit favours an easy life--Training in habits becomes a habit--Habits inspired by the home atmosphere 135

I. THE HABIT OF ATTENTION

A mind at the mercy of associations--Wandering attention--The habit of attention to be cultivated in the infant--Attention to _things_, words a weariness--Lessons attractive--Time-table, definite work in a given time--A natural reward--Emulation-- Affection as a motive--Attractiveness of knowledge--What is attention?--Self-compelled attention--The secret of over- pressure--The schoolboy’s home-work--Wholesome home treatment for ‘mooning’--Rewards and punishments should be relative consequences of conduct--Natural and educative consequences 137

II. THE HABITS OF APPLICATION, ETC.

Rapid mental effort--Zeal must be stimulated 149

III. THE HABIT OF THINKING

‘A lion’--Operations included in thinking 150

IV. THE HABIT OF IMAGINING

The sense of the incongruous--Commonplace tales; tales of imagination--Imagination and great conceptions--Imagination grows--Thinking comes by practice 151

V. THE HABIT OF REMEMBERING

Remembering and recollecting--A ‘spurious’ memory--Memory, a record in the brain substance--Made under what conditions-- Recollection and the law of association--Every lesson must recall the last--No limit to the recording power of the brain--But links of association a condition of recollection 154

VI. THE HABIT OF PERFECT EXECUTION

The habit of turning out imperfect work--A child should execute perfectly 159

VII. SOME MORAL HABITS

Obedience--The whole duty of a child--Obedience no accidental duty--Children must have the desire to obey--Expect obedience--Law ensures liberty 160

VIII. TRUTHFULNESS, ETC.

Three causes of lying--All vicious--Only one kind visited on children--Accuracy of statement--Exaggeration and ludicrous embellishments--Reverence--Temper born in a child--Not temper but tendency--Parents must correct tendency by new habit of temper--Change the child’s thoughts 164

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