Gunnison news-champion., 1916-01-14
NJ MI r NJ
mWT CTS m
State Normal School News Letter.

Cthtt ANDfbtai Dttfobi lNt~c Afftttt
Nothing can be more important to
consider than habit. AL things ere
making responses of some kind. The
responses of bving things more often
attract our attention than do those
which seem to have no life. but nearly
all responses Of all things are due to
habits they have formed. This bit Of
paper in my hand has been folded thus.
When ! apply pressure, it tends to do
what it has done before. 1t tends 10
fold along the old lines, to repeat the
response it has made. So it 10 with
plants, with animals, with men, end
with the children of men-sll are under
the law of habit, for habit is Lac Of
the universe, as unfsiling in its opera
tion rs the law of gravitstion. All
things tend to do or be now what they
have done OF been before. Watch any
group of men or women for ten minutes.
They will make responses all the time.
and nine out of ten of these responses are
due to habits they have formed before,
perhaps many years before. One msn
may make the response Of sitting awk-
wardly in his chair. That 10 habit Of
his. There was time when he did that
tor the first time. BY repesting. the
tendency he's become fixed. That 40
man who says to her friend, Il aaae it
yesterday" and mispronounces other
words in her conversation. makes such
q response because it is her habit. There
was . time when she talked that way
for the first time. Repeating the re-
sponse hes fixed the tendency That
young msn puts his pencil in the left
side pocket of his vest. 1t is . habit
he has formed Thst other man with
the newspaper, the man with the coarse,
dull face, 10 reading the accounts of
scandals. Ne always turns to those
things in his paper, psssing over the
editorial and political news. 1t 10 his
habit. There ives . time whom he did
that for the first time, but by repetition
it has become fixed.
fCsppuhSC HloRc tO-01y bSoNSs d
tendency in my body. more particularly
in the nervous structures of my body;
that 10, the brain, the spinal cord, and
the nerves branching from the brain
end spinal cord, TO respond in that way
again when similar exciting conditions
recur. Ii lie down to take Q nap after
dinner on Sunday afternoon, there is a
tendency in the nervous structures of
my body to repeat that response after
dinner on Monday. IL l do repeat that
response on Monday and each succeed
ing day for few times, the tendency
becomes 30 strong that l find it almost
impossible to resist the pull of the body.
Such yesponse is motor and ply ysiologi-
cal in its nature, and have acquired q
motor or physiological habit. which NAV
be either good or bad for me according
to the demands of my daily work. III
become cr0ss or angry ct . student who
fails in his school work to-day end per
INIT myself 70 say something sarcastic to
him, there 10 left in the nervous struc-
lures Of my body . tendency to repeat
that response when that student fails
again. II DO repeat that response day
after day, the tendency becomes 80
strong that find il almost impossible to
resist the pull Of what we call my TEN
per. but il is really the body. 1t is in
the nerves. They tend 70 do what they
have done before. and this response,
this being cross and angry, is emotional
in its nature, and have acquired what
we may call m emotional habit. But
you see, the worst of it is, that change
occur in physical structures and
mere desire to be otherwise does not
change these structures. l must do
other things. must grow out of the hab-
it that have formed II in reading a
paragraph, ! concentrate sttention up
on what ] am doing, 20 that l can tel
by one swift reading what the par
agraph contains. and il, by repetition of
that response, ! establish the power to
do that every time I resd, I have form
ed what you might call IN intellectual
habit, but il u also due TO changes
which occur in the nervous sys ,em. Ii
also IL due to tendencies Of things to do
or be nov what hey have done o. been.
Ihus yoa see, ones habits may be mere
~ physiological, motor, o. they may Be
largely emotional o. intellectuol. They
are likely to be . combination of all
these. foa see also tAat Il does begin
with Q particular response s0d gruws in
strength - that respoase ID repeated.
All who teach are seeking to coafrol the
fofDatisa Of habits d Stkess.