The record-union., 1897-11-23
Afternoon Session.

Afternoon Session.
After roll call in the afternoon Pro-
fessor F. B. Dresslar addressed the In
stitute on Habit Formation and Habit
Breaking" his address being preceded
by an excellent vocal solo by Miss So
! phie Price.
Habit, he said, presupposes Elasticity.
, What is Elasticity? That thing is plas-
tic which becomes firm easily and holds
| it. for at least little time When our
nervous organization is most susceptible
and yet has power of retention we are
plastic. But we have not the power of
retention in childhood. Habit is not
! thing that aD3ertains only to us. A
| coat sleeve has a habit, it binds in GER
| tain places. Take two violins. Let a
master play on one for five years and
you play on the other, which would you
rather have at the end of that time?
| First he wanted to speak of habit
getting. The little child has a brain
that grows to it's full size in about fif-
teen years. But the size of the brain
does not necessarily include it's func-
| tions. The brain has two sides, which
/ are connected by association fibers.
The center Of speech in a right handed
/ person. Is III Lie lGlI tGI1ple, dIlu NiCc
versa, and a blow on the left temple
of the right-handed person will deprive
him of speech for the time being. All
OF our brain action must be unified. if
we would attain good results. The
| teacher in her schol work who tells her
! class that and make 5, and does not
write it on the board, so that they can
see, as we'll as hear the fact, has not
| fully carried out her work.
| A growing thing is plastic. It depends
on our activity whether we are devel-
oping our nervous system to the best
advantage. Our years between and
| Is are the years in which we form our
| habits. The baby practically begins its
| life anew each morning, and none or
us remember things before we are 8
years old. Older people have hard
| work to memorize things that would
have been easy to them at 10. Things
| at that age make an impression that
! growth fastens and keeps there. the
child receives a scar, and it remains
with it through life, although particles
| that compose it's body have been
changed several times. We cannot ex-
pect the pupils to be thorough unless
you are thorough yourself. Let them
go over things that they have mad IN
lower grades. They cannot be expect
| ed to remember everything that they
have been over unless their memories
| are refreshed by review.
| We get habits of thinking, of read
| ing. Of facial expression, a cast-lron
smile, so to speak. and habits OF reel
ing. We can get habit of doing good
and never do it; Of being helpful to
the Door and never giving them cent.
| If we make up our minds to grow we
want TO start in at once If we do not,
| we will fall into the habit of putting
if off. How much time and help have
you given your pupils this year IN
teaching them how to study? Do you
give them an hour in which to get a
lesson which they could get in fifteen
minutes, you are doing them an in
jury.
Try to know how much time it re-
quires to get the lesson, and give them
that time, and tie them down to it.
Make them form the habit of getting 1T
in the proper time; of concentrating
their attention on their study. The
American people will never be thorough
or attain the best results in their work
until they give themselves just so much
| time to do a thing, and get down to
work and do it in that time. He had
| found this to be the case with normal
school pupils. If the teachers send out
! their pupils in the common schools with
| the habit of concentration on their
work, they have done more for them
than by teaching them all the Latin
and Greek in the course.
1t is one of the most difficult things
in school to assign a lesson properly.
The teacher who merely says, Take
! from example 10 to example %" has
not properly assigned the lesson, for
| she has not looked to see what diff
| culties the children have to contend
with If the teacher. after assigning
the lesson, will give one minute to CIV
| ing the class an idea of what they are
to do, she has done much for it, which
| she viii find the benefit of and the pu-
pills will avoid '.scatteration.'
There is a habit of fatigue The little
boy, when beginning to learn to write,
works with his whole body. He grips
| the pen as if it We're trying to get
away from him, and soon not only his
arm, but his whole body is tired. We
must form the habit of thinking clear
ly and accurately, if we would not get
tired. Until we learn to do SO, we will
| become tired. He could count with
| more certainty on person who had
| formed a proper habit of thinking or
doing lis work than on one that had
not He was sorry for the boy or girl
who is cast out into the world without
the protecting care of habits properly
formed. We can give the children hab-
ifc Af CT of rAIar oF
and Of careful thinking, by heading
them off.
There is another side, that of break
ing habits. Watch your child Write
down all the faults you find in him,
and what you think should be done
to correct them. AT first you will find
a large number of faults, but in another
month or two, they begin to doubt if
the child possessed the fault. They
were adjusting themselves to the child
rem. and eradicating their habits. If a
boy or girl has bad habit allude to
it as little as possible. We sometimes
deepen the impression of evil in the
pupils mind by calling attention to it.
We can eradicate bad habits by teach
ing good ones instead of calling atten-
ton to bad ones. The teacher who
proceeds thoughtfully on these lines
will lind that she has attained a syste-
matte result.
HISTORY.
Mrs. E. B. Purnell next addressed tho
institute on the subject of History"
She confined herself. by request. she
said. 20 the branch Of United States
history Children do not get an edu-
cation in our common schools, she said