The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-12-15
EDUCATIONAL TRAINING.

EDUCATIONAL TRAINING.
Imperfect and incomplete education
is the rule rather than the exception.
Az a general thing students do not
know how to study and therefore
never learn. This is because the
teacher does not know how to teach.
The most important capacity of a pu-
pill is rarely brought into action until
the mature man discovers it for him
self.
A certain curriculum of textbooks
is put into the hands of the student
and he or she is informed that 80
many lines, verses or chapters are to
be studied for each recitation and If
anything difficult is encountered the
teacher thinks he has done his whole
duty when he explains it to his class.
The very Alpha of an education is
neg leeted and never alluded to by the
educator, and that is, the ability to
control all the capacities of the mind
by the will. Quite the reverse is often
taught, especially if the student is ad-
vaneed to the study of science or a
profession. Young men studying law
are often told by their preeeptors that
1t is useless to attempt to understand
the author and fix the principles he
teaches on the mind, unless the stu
dent is in humor to study, unless
the mind works with ease and without
any exertion to concentrate il upon the
subject. This very thing has brought
mere incompetent men to the bar
than any lack of natural ability.
The very first lesson to be taught
student is the ability of anyone with
a mind to control that mind by the
will. A man has no idea Of his own
capacity until he learns this lesson.
The mind can be controlled by the
will with as much ease as locomo-
tive engineer can control his engine.
In fact, all the powers of the mind are
never brought into action until it is
touched by the spur of compulsion,
and when student has learned the
power of his will over every faculty of
the mind, then and then only, is he
fully equipped for mental effort. The
mind, like the body, is lazy and will
never do good work until its master,
the will, takes control and forces it to
action at all times and under all Cir
eumstances.
The difference in men is not so
much in their mentality, but in the
understanding by some men of their
ability to use every capacity of the
mind to the very best advantage. The
mind is very much like a piece Of ma
ehinery; it needs the pressure of steam
to do it's work. The will OF man is the
steam that puts the mind in motion
and forces it into continued action
until the work is accomplished.
The will can reach every power OF
the mind by direct action. We often
find it impossible to remember the
name of some one and think we have
exhausted our efforts to recall it, and
go about other things, but the mind
has been put into activity and motion
by the will and to our surprise, with
out the slightest consciousness on our
part, the name suddenly pops up as it
were, with as familiar sound tu us
as our ewn name.
This demonstrates the power of the
will over the mind and shows us that
the mind put in motion by the will
works on without our knowledge OF
it's continued working on a subject
that we think for time it has aban-
doned.
Tho great fault of our educators is
in not teaching such facts as these to
the student early in life. The first
thing to be taught is how to think
and how to think well, how to use all
the natural capacities of the mind to
the best advantage, and then the pro-
cess of education is easy, the mind
runs like well oiled machinery and
does all it's work well.
1t has been remarked by some able
writer that the lack of the power of
coordination made great many
fsols but sometimes genius. When
the mind is governed at pleasur hey
the will, coordination Of mental Ca
pacity is 80 natural that it seems in
digenous and each faculty is mustered
into place, and like an army with
banners is ready for diversified or
concentrated action.
THERE is good deal of wranging
oxar tho Mar Work conatOrshiD The