Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1892-04-23
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN.
The Teaching of Thrift.
tprof. a. ". whelan. Ellis, Kansas.l

1t has been said that IMAM is bundle
of habits" This has been disputed by
some, who probably will have it that
there is something more of real live
man than his mere manner of living
However this may be. we can perhaps all
agree that man is bundle of some sort
and that he has habits. Moreover that
some part OF each average American bum
die is conglOmerated, amalgamated,
thrown together, or developed, in or
about the school room.
prefer to adopt the term developed,
and if admit the term bundle at all. I
make the arbitrary proviso that this
bundle is not, IN any sense, to be looked
upon as bunch of straw, nor even of
oaken posts l would have HIM neither a
man OF straw nor wooden man. I
would also enjoin you from considering
him rock. grown by force of circum-
stances and the law of cohesion, which
might become, according to its nature, a
grlndstone or piece of statuary. I
would SO draw the lines as to restrict
your ideas of this bundle to that of COM
pleteness from the beginning. I would
ask you to admit that, as time passes, the
number of component parts of this bun
die neither increases nor diminishes-
that the child bundle is 'the father to the
man-bundle" in the sense of containing
all the elements and qualities of the
latter except size and strength Further
that the prime essence of this bundle is
an inherent self-activity, and that habit
is the result Of an operation of this activ-
ity-a development and not an addition.
In this sense, if you please, we will admit
that man is bundle of habits.
If am permitted to assume, then, that
a habit is developed power, one of the
questions that may next arise is, is it
possible to suppress one of those powers,
and thus to desroy habit? At one time
in my life, l was frequently thrown into
the society of men who had but a short
time previos given up the habit of chew
ing tobacco and smoking. I watched
them with some interest to see If some
other habit would arise to take the place
of the former In every case thought /
could detect some indi cations of an i'm
portani change in the individual, as
though some latent force never before
awakened, were being brought into activ-
| 60 h.. lo,l
sion that the various powers of an indi-
vidual may become SO overshadowed by
others that the former will cease to act
while the latter will have full sway.
A dangerous giant under strong prison
walls would soon become a harmless
heap of dust. Phrenologists tell us, and
we have no certain knowledge to the con-
trary, that the bump Of destructiveness
lies almost alongside the bump of con-
structiveness. There is bump marked
not determined" lying alongside of the
bump of acquisitiveness. Reasoning
from analogy may we not recommend to
phrenologists that that unnamed protu-
berance be christened the bump of waste
fulness? Not that you and I wish to be
considered bumptious, but that teachers
are always ready to sacrifice themselves
| in the interest of science. Seriously, if
we accept the classification of parts of
the brain as given us by learned men, we
may reasonably infer from that classif-
cation that the various powers of the in
dividual may .be unequally developed.
And as motion is always the result of an
unbalanced force. the relative strength or
weakness of opposing powers in any in
divid1al determines the tendency of the
nature of that individual. Hence a per-
son is good or bad in general sense only
because certain powers have been devel
oped to the neglect of others.
Begging pardon for taking the liberty
of this little prelude, will now proceed
to my theme.
A man is thrifty or careful only as he
has been led by precept, by example, or
| by force of circumstances to see the ne
cesslty or the non-necessity of one or the
other. The moulding of his mind in this
direction is begun at the cradle. The in
FAINT is given book or paper. 1t rustles
| the leaves with its little hands, and sud
denly discovers that a new and delightful
sound can be made by tearing the paper.
1t is given glass toy, and soon learns to
delight in the jingle of broken glass. As
it grows older, it finds an attraction in
the bright glare of fire and learns to burn
Things merely for the sake of seeing the
blaze. La these and hundreds of other
ways, the child learns to be destructive,
and have Interpretation of the value
of things. When it comes into the
schoolroom, the teacher is supposed to be
magician enough to transform all these
evil traits into good ones. While it is
not fair to assume, as did an old lady
not thousand miles from here, recently,