The course is intended for seniors or juniors in the high school. The ground can be covered in two lessons per week through the year. If so much time is not available some can be saved by beginning with the section on habit. The book is so arranged that nothing which follows this topic is dependent upon that which precedes it. This statement, however, does not mean that these earlier sections have no organic connection with the rest of the work. The end in view is not merely the development of interests and of character, but rather of a well-rounded personality. And the complete development even of interests and character involves the development of intelligence. The general principles which have guided me in the preparation of this course I have stated in an article entitled The Development of Moral Thoughtfulness in the School published in Papers Contributed by American Writers to the Second International Moral Education Congress (1912), reprinted in Religious Education for June 1913. This manual is the second edition, much enlarged and thoroughly revised, of a work published in 1909. In the preparation of the former and of the present book I have received assistance from a large number of friends, some of them teachers who have used the manual in their high schools, some of them my colleagues in The University of Wisconsin. To all these I hereby tender my acknowledgments and hearty thanks. ATTENTION 1. When there is a clock ticking or striking in the room does a person always hear it? May an object be "right in front of your eyes," and you not see it? May an object be pressing against the skin without your feeling it? Given illustrations from your own experience or that of others. 2. What conclusion is to be drawn from the answers to the preceding questions? 3. When you do see an object, do you necessarily see all parts of it with equal clearness and distinctness? In order to answer this question fix your eyes steadily upon some word near the center of a printed page and note carefully what you see. In listening to four part singing do you hear all parts with equal clearness and distinctness? 4. Is the difference between a good and a poor observer merely this, that the one has better eyes or ears or other sense organs than has the other? 5. Why is it that of two people with equally good memory, one can afterwards describe in detail what was in a room in which he has spent only a few minutes, what kind of clothes a person had on, how a flower or bird, new to him, looked, whereas the other can not do it at all? 6. If gaining a valuable prize depended upon your being able to give an accurate and complete description of a stuffed bird exposed to your gaze for, say, twenty seconds, how would you go about to do it? 7. Why is it that an expert rooter can see a hundredfold more of what is happening at a football game than one who is a spectator of the game for the first time? 8. If the former has watched the practice a good deal, will he be able to see more of what his own team does than of what the other team does? 9. A botanist and an ignoramus in botany are each looking at the same flower. Why does the former see more of its qualities and characteristics than the latter? 10. In Talks to Teachers on Psychology, p. 113, Professor James writes: "The possession of a steady faculty of attention is unquestionably a great boon. Those who have it can work more rapidly and with less nervous wear and tear. I am inclined to think that no one who is without it naturally can by any amount of drill or discipline attain it in a very high degree. Its amount is probably a fixed characteristic of the individual." Does the statement of the last two sentences accord with your observation or experience? (As there is no experimental or other conclusive evidence on this subject, one way or the other, everyone is entitled to his own opinion.) 11. To what is mind wandering, e. g., in the classroom, usually due? For instance, under what circumstances do the noises outdoors cease to be noticed? 12. Does the indulgence of our tendency to let our attention be carried away by every passing solicitation strengthen that tendency? 13. What conclusion may we draw from the answers to the preceding questions as to the possibility of developing in ourselves the power of sustained attention? |