Make a list of different motives which are most prominent at different times in the child's life; e.g., at what age is the impulse to imitation strongest?

V.-HABIT AND CHARACTER:

A little child has difficulty at first in learning to shake hands with the right hand. Why do grown-up people not require to stop to think what hand to use?

A person takes a friction bath every morning for ten years, does he require to make up his mind to do so each morning of the eleventh year? May he take a bath without consciously noticing that he takes it? Why is this? A person is strictly honest for twenty years, is it easy for him to be honest the twenty-first year?

Point out the result of habit in all activity.

If a boy who is tempted to play truant yields the first morning, and is similarly tempted to play the second morning, is he more likely to yield under similar temptation than on the previous occasion? Why is this? What is the result of choice in the formation of character?

Point out resemblances between retention, character, habit. Show that choice resembles apperception and that character resembles retention.

What is the effect of an error on future performance of the same task? If we have added a column of figures from bottom to top, why do we verify it by adding from top to bottom? What is the effect of habit on the difficulty of performing an operation? Explain the meaning of the statement: "The perfection of art is to conceal art." In what way is the definiteness of an action influenced by habit? How do habitual compare with unusual acts in the degree of conscious supervision required? How does this effect of habit influence our power of doing more than one thing at a time? Why is that

virtue deepest which is unconscious of itself? If a habit is difficult to overcome in proportion to the number of times the act has been performed, and if instincts be inherited habits, how would they compare in this respect with ordinary habits formed within the lifetime of the individual? Make a list of the hereditary tendencies which you consider most marked in your own character. Which are admirable and which objectionable?

Discuss methods of eliminating the latter and encouraging the former. Make a list of the most important environing forces which have helped to mould your character-persons, books, artistic productions, natural scenery, etc.

Point out effects of heredity, environment and education upon character. Can an individual, by force of will power, rise superior to all these influences? In the case of a boy who is tempted to play truant, but knows that he ought to go to school, there are usually three courses open: First, to at once follow the call to duty, turn his back on the temptation and hurry off to school. Second, to deliberate and choose which course to pursue. Third, to at once yield to the temptation and hurry away with his companions. Which is the best method? Which is the easier for the average boy? Why is there more hope for the boy who chooses the second, than for the one who chooses the third. If he makes an effort to rivet his attention upon the advantages of going to school and the disadvantages of playing truant-why will the temptation tend to grow weaker?

Compare the following methods of learning to swim:

1st. The learner is repeatedly thrown into the water and allowed to struggle into a knowledge of how to swim. He is given no instructions whatever, but is rescued in case of danger.

2nd. The learner is taught all that can be learned about swimming without going into the water.

3rd. The learner investigates the subject carefully until

he knows what is the underlying principle of swimming, what form of action is best, what dangers are to be avoided, etc. He then goes into the water and, under the observation of a skilful trainer, is guided, encouraged, cautioned, until he learns to swim.

Point out the advantages and the disadvantages of each of these methods. Which is the best method, and why? Give illustrations to show that in learning it is always well to combine knowing and doing.

VI.-EDUCATIONAL APPLICATION:

Give school-room applications and violations of the following:

All education should aim at the development of personality, will power, self-control, character.

Every action, no matter how trivial, if properly performed, strengthens the will, e.g., the discrimination of sensations, the co-ordination of muscular movements, the memorizing of a literary selection, or the solution of a mathematical problem.

There are natural impulses which should be developed, and others which should be checked.

There are nascent or budding periods in child growth when certain impulses are at their height, and when development along these lines is much easier than if attempted earlier or later.

A will act involves the carrying out of a motive. A motive is first a desire, and, in order to have a desire, we must have an idea of some other condition which we consider preferable to our present condition.

Desires are furnished through interest in surroundings, imitation of others, external stimuli and psychical activity.

A desire must be considered to be attainable before it forms a basis for action.

The will is developed through control of movement. The development of control is from muscular to prudential, and from prudential to moral.

In learning, it is important to know what is to be done and how it is to be done, and to actually do the thing.

A good model for imitation enables the learner to save time by avoiding too much experimentation.

Initiative is the essence of a will act. The child should learn to deliberate and choose for himself, and persevere in the execution of his choice without too much assistance from the teacher.

The teacher can assist in surrounding the child with suitable materials for the development of high ideals, can furnish the best type of model, and to a certain extent, guide the child to a proper selection by leading him to see the true meaning of things.

The best way to secure good order in the class-room is to provide pupils with the proper amount of suitable work, under satisfactory conditions.

The individual can form a habit of placing himself under such surroundings as will suggest lofty ideals.

Through continued exercise and effort the learner gains power to inhibit useless impulses and concentrate attention upon the work in hand and upon the purpose to be achieved.

Social activities (e.g., obedience to properly constituted authority, self-denial for the general good, co-operation with others) furnish the best field for moral training.

The highest type of conduct is that which results from conformity to the highest ideal, viz., to do right because it is right, and therefore ought to be done.

Children should be given opportunity for deliberation and choice, but should not be placed under temptations demanding a greater effort of will power than they are capable of. In case we are tempted to select as a motive a desire which

we know we ought not to select, the will is strengthened by fixing the attention upon the advantages of the worthy desire and the disadvantages of the degrading one until the better conquers and becomes a motive.

In most cases, however (as a result of forming a habit of choosing the higher motive in the past), we may have formed a character which enables us, without effort, to automatically select the highest without conscious deliberation. Where the temptation proves too strong for this, salvation consists not in yielding at once, but in deliberating until the higher desire triumphs.

The will is strengthened every time we realize a motive, no matter how low in the scale the activity may be.

The will can be trained to form a habit of proceeding at once to realize the motives we have set before us.

Habits of moral and religious control form character, and this is the highest object of all training.