Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1896-02-04
PROPER SCHOOL INCENTIVES.

Every walk Of life must have
incentives. If any occupation
of man didnot present incentives
how many would choose that vo-
cation as their lives work? Man
engages in no work without some
determined end which he wishes
to accomplish. If he is doing
something without anything in
view which he wishes to accom-
plish by so doing, it is not work
but play, and th*t which he wish
es to accomplish by doing any
line of work is an incentive to him
for: doing that work.
A soldier who is orderly in
camp, patient on the march and
first in line of battle, may do it
all in hope of promotion, and yet
this hope of promotion is to him
an incentivefor SO doing. A per-
son may follow some pursuit for
the love of the pursuit itself and
yet the love of that pursuit in it.
self is an incentive. A person
may travel for pleasure, and yet
the pleasure obtained by travel.
ing is an incentive. Trace, if you
will, all human actions that we're
done with something definite in
view and you will find that that
something definite in view was
the incentive that caused those
actions.
Thus in every line of work in
centives are the springs Of action
and no where else is it more true
than in school work. Then if it
is incentives that govern to a
large extent the work of school.
the question is what are the prop
er incentives that shall govern
the scholars and the teacher in
their respective duties?
Before going further into the
subject, there is one thing that is
the foundation of all proper incen
tives and that is the moral train
ing of the will. The will is that
self-active or self-assertive pow
er of the soul that brings all ap-
petites and desires into subjec-
ton of reason. It has been said
that appetite is the will solicitor
and will the appetite controller
Without going into the details
of the subjects but with White as
the authority, the will is the pow
er which lifts us above the plane
of the lower animals, whose
actions are caused as far as we
know by their feelings especially
by their bodily feelings-sensa-
lions, appetites and instincts,
and so there is no moral quality
to their actions. If man was on
the same plane as these brutes
are, with only the powers of
feeling and knowing and was
governed by the sensations, appe-
titles and desires, over which
he had no control he would not be
responsible for his actions, SO
the moral quality which is given
to the actions Of man is bought
about by that will element of the
soul.
The will can suppress any de-
sire or appetite or it can choose
betweenlany desire or appetite,
If the will sanctions a desire or
an appetite and it passes into a
fix purpose bringing all related
actions and purposes under it's
control it becomes a governing
purpose. If these governing
purposes are executed by the
volition of the will it passes into
an action. Thus it is that this
power of the soul chooses and
puts it's choices into purposes
and violitions that makes man re-
sponsibIe for his actions.
The will can be trained and
White says: "That effective NOR
al training involves the dicipline
of the will to act habitually in
view of those motives which re-
lease the soul from bondage tc
low and selfish desires and makes
the conscience regal in. the
live. Then in the above Mr.,
White has said the will suppress.
ing wrong desires and base appe.
titles and choosing noble desires
and elevating appetites makes it
easier the next time then isan oc
casion to the choose between