In using the conditions in which the student finds himself the center, Parker recommended a wisely adjusted self-effort which could discriminate between what was done for him, and what he could do for himself. By examining consciousness, Parker discovered that one cannot consciously direct every idea in the mind, but by focusing the attention on a specific thing, a flow of related idea would arise. Because the environment conditions evolution, the improvement of the environment through education is a valuable aid in evolving humanity. The three modes of attention according to Parker were observation, hearing-language, and reading. Observation has educative value, because the continuous action of an object upon consciousness develops and intensifies corresponding concepts.
Attention is educative thinking because conscious activities are immediately needed for development.
Direct acts of consciousness would be synthesis, association, recollection, remembrance, and imagination, while secondary acts caused by the ego would be inference or judgment such as recognition, analysis, comparison, classification, and generalization. Observation leads the student to be able to think for oneself based on one's own perceptions, and is the remedy to prejudiced and dogmatic teaching which obviously should be avoided. Teaching reliance upon human authority is dangerous and should be replaced by allowing the student to find the truth for oneself. Language is based on the law of association, the correspondence between the verbal symbols and the meaning. Parker points out that the more intense the acts of association are, the fewer repetitions are needed.