South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-09-01
Teachers at Institute Told That
They Can Aid Children in
Acquiring the Right
Viewpoint.
ALL HABITS MUST
BE MECHANICAL FIRST
Only by Doing Thing Over and
over Again is Practice
Formed-HappineSS in Life
Depends Upon Them.

DR. w d Henderson traced the LIE
history of a habit wednesday after
noon at the st. Joseph county teach
ers' institute. from its inception to its
full development. There are three
kinds of habits. he said, Inherited, ten
dency and acquired.
"TO make a child have a life of
happiness and efficiency it is neces-
sary to teach him good habits, for his
life depends upon the character of the
habits formed in early youth. A part
of each child's viii is habit, and this
habit can't he removed today and put
on tomorrow.
'But it is of tie acquired habits that
I desire to speak Habits that you
teachers in the schools can help the
children to form There are three
characteristics of this class. They are:
Habits require mechanism, that is,
they must be mechanical before they
are habits: habits secondly. require
practice. In order to make them me-
chanical the experience which forms
the habit must be repeated over and
over again, just as the child learns the
multiplication table. And the third
factor. and the one which makes 1t
dangerous is that abits once formed,
bring pleasure.
You can't change a habit. IL is
not an easy task TO change the pas
after all, pretty much a matter of
physiological development along GER
tain lines" he concluded.
Tolerance upon matter of pronunci-
alton of the English language was
urged by DR.. w. d. Henderson before
the teachers institute Wednesday
morning. He declared that there
could be no uniform standard Of pro-
nunciatiOn, chiefly because of the
geographical separation of the Eng
lish speaking race. The other reasons
he gave that prevent a uniform stan
dard from being established were the
methods of spelling, and the fact that
the English are too much a set of text
book lovers.
No Uniform Standard.
DIR. Henderson characterized the
English system of spelling as the most
abOminable, the most astrociOus in the
world "PronounciatiOn naturally fol-
lows spelling, at least that is the ten
dency of the language" he said
There can be no uniform standard
of pronunciation. The LOndoner
thinks he speaks undefiled English
the easterner in this country thinks
the same, and what of our western
people? Isn't their pronunciation as
good as another?
Il would have you teachers be as
liberal IN your teaching of pronuncia-
tiOn as you are in your religious
views. i'm your political ideas. There
is no uniform standard. There are the
dictionaries. BY the dictionaries we
get two or three ways of pronouncing
the same word. and all of them are
correct. In Michigan you say pail
in Southern Indiana bucket In the
east you slur the T at the end of
word. in the west you give il a broad
accent. One is good as another, and
all are correct.
Teachers YOU can not set any one
standard by which a child should
write. You can't stamp out childs
individuality by any standards YOU
may have a style is wide. There is
the style of the simple English, and
then the long involved sentences. The
Bible is an example of one. II is
clear forceful, well-defined English.
TOlstOi's ANALYSIS of character are an
CONTINUED on PAGE TWO.T