The Mind and Its Education

G >> George Herbert Betts >> The Mind and Its Education

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The training of the nervous system consists finally, then, in the
development and cooerdination of the neurones of which it is composed. We
have seen that the sensory cells are to be developed by the sensory
stimuli pouring in upon them, and the motor cells by the motor impulses
which they send out to the muscles. The sensory and the motor fibers
likewise, being an outgrowth of their respective cells, find their
development in carrying the impulses which result in sensation and
movement. Thus it is seen that the neurone is, in its development as in
its work, a unit.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION CENTERS.--To this simpler type of sensory
and motor development which we have been considering, we must add that
which comes from the more complex mental processes, such as memory,
thought, and imagination. For it is in connection with these that the
association fibers are developed, and the brain areas so connected that
they can work together as a unit. A simple illustration will enable us
to see more clearly how the nervous mechanism acts to bring this about.

Suppose that I am walking along a country road deeply engaged in
meditation, and that I come to a puddle of water in my pathway. I may
turn aside and avoid the obstruction without my attention being called
to it, and without interruption of my train of thought. The act has been
automatic. In this case the nerve current has passed from the eye (_S_)
over an afferent fiber to a sensory center (_s_) in the nervous system
below the cortex; from there it has been forwarded to a motor center
(_m_) in the same region, and on out over a motor fiber to the proper
muscles (_M_), which are to execute the required act. The act having
been completed, the sensory nerves connected with the muscles employed
report the fact back that the work is done, thus completing the circuit.
This event may be taken as an illustration of literally thousands of
acts which we perform daily without the intervention of consciousness,
and hence without involving the hemispheres.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Diagram illustrating the paths of association.]

If, however, instead of avoiding the puddle unconsciously, I do so from
consideration of the danger of wet feet and the disagreeableness of
soiled shoes and the ridiculous appearance I shall make, then the
current cannot take the short circuit, but must pass on up to the
cortex. Here it awakens consciousness to take notice of the obstruction,
and calls forth the images which aid in directing the necessary
movements. This simple illustration may be greatly complicated,
substituting for it one of the more complex problems which are
continually presenting themselves to us for solution, or the associated
trains of thought that are constantly occupying our minds. But the truth
of the illustration still holds. Whether in the simple or the complex
act, there is always a forward passing of the nerve current through the
sensory and thought centers, and on out through the motor centers to the
organs which are to be concerned in the motor response.

THE FACTORS INVOLVED IN A SIMPLE ACTION.--Thus it will be seen that in
the simplest act which can be considered there are the following
factors: (1) The stimulus which acts on the end-organ; (2) the ingoing
current over an afferent nerve; (3) the sensory or interpreting cells;
(4) the fibers connecting the sensory with a motor center; (5) the motor
cells; (6) the efferent nerve to carry the direction for the movement
outward to the muscle; (7) the motor response; and, finally, (8) the
report back that the act has been performed. With this in mind it fairly
bewilders one to think of the marvelous complexity of the work that is
going on in our nervous mechanism every moment of our life, even without
considering the higher thought processes at all. How, with these added,
the resulting complexity all works out into beautiful harmony is indeed
beyond comprehension.

3. EDUCATION AND THE TRAINING OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Fortunately, many of the best opportunities for sensory and motor
training do not depend on schools or courses of study. The world is full
of stimuli to our senses and to our social natures; and our common lives
are made up of the responses we make to these stimuli,--the movements,
acts and deeds by which we fit ourselves into our world of environment.
Undoubtedly the most rapid and vital progress we make in our development
is accomplished in the years before we have reached the age to go to
school. Yet it is the business of education to see that we do not lack
any essential opportunity, to make sure that necessary lines of stimuli
or of motor training have not been omitted from our development.

EDUCATION TO SUPPLY OPPORTUNITIES FOR STIMULUS AND RESPONSE.--The great
problem of education is, on the physical side, it would seem, then, to
provide for ourselves and those we seek to educate as rich an
environment of sensory and social stimuli as possible; one whose
impressions will be full of suggestions to response in motor activity
and the higher thought processes; and then to give opportunity for
thought and for expression in acts and deeds in the largest possible
number of lines. And added to this must be frequent and clear sensory
and motor recall, a living over again of the sights and sounds and odors
and the motor activities we have once experienced. There must also be
the opportunity for the forming of worthy plans and ideals. For in this
way the brain centers which were concerned in the original sensation or
thought or movement are again brought into exercise, and their
development continued. Through recall and imagination we are able not
only greatly to multiply the effects of the immediate sensory and motor
stimuli which come to us, but also to improve our power of thinking by
getting a fund of material upon which the mind can draw.

ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.--Nature has set the order in
which the powers of the nervous system shall develop. And we must follow
this order if we would obtain the best results. Stated in technical
terms, the order is _from fundamental to accessory_. This is to say that
the nerve centers controlling the larger and more general movements of
the body ripen first, and those governing the finer motor adjustments
later. For example, the larger body muscles of the child which are
concerned with sitting up come under control earlier than those
connected with walking. The arm muscles develop control earlier than the
finger muscles, and the head and neck muscles earlier than the eye
muscles. So also the more general and less highly specialized powers of
the mind ripen sooner than the more highly specialized. Perception and
observation precede powers of critical judgment and association. Memory
and imagination ripen earlier than reasoning and the logical ability.

This all means that our educational system must be planned to follow the
order of nature. Children of the primary grades should not be required
to write with fine pencils or pens which demand delicate finger
adjustments, since the brain centers for these finer cooerdinations are
not yet developed. Young children should not be set at work
necessitating difficult eye control, such as stitching through
perforated cardboard, reading fine print and the like, as their eyes
are not yet ready for such tasks. The more difficult analytical problems
of arithmetic and relations of grammar should not be required of pupils
at a time when the association areas of the brain are not yet ready for
this type of thinking. For such methods violate the law of nature, and
the child is sure to suffer the penalty.

4. IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH AND VIGOR OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Parallel with opportunities for proper stimuli and response the nervous
system must possess good _tonicity_, or vigor. This depends in large
degree on general health and nutrition, with freedom from overfatigue.
No favorableness of environment nor excellence of training can result in
an efficient brain if the nerve energy has run low from depleted health,
want of proper nourishment, or exhaustion.

THE INFLUENCE OF FATIGUE.--Histologists find that the nuclei of nerve
cells are shrunk as much as fifty per cent by extreme fatigue.
Reasonable fatigue followed by proper recuperation is not harmful, but
even necessary if the best development is to be attained; but fatigue
without proper nourishment and rest is fatal to all mental operations,
and indeed finally to the nervous system itself, leaving it permanently
in a condition of low tone, and incapable of rallying to strong effort.
For rapid and complete recuperation the cells must have not only the
best of nourishment but opportunity for rest as well.

Extreme and long-continued fatigue is hostile to the development and
welfare of any nervous system, and especially to that of children. Not
only does overfatigue hinder growth, but it also results in the
formation of certain _toxins_, or poisons, in the organism, which are
particularly harmful to nervous tissue. It is these fatigue toxins that
account for many of the nervous and mental disorders which accompany
breakdowns from overwork. On the whole, the evil effects from mental
overstrain are more to be feared than from physical overstrain.

THE EFFECTS OF WORRY.--There is, perhaps, no greater foe to brain growth
and efficiency than the nervous and worn-out condition which comes from
loss of sleep or from worry. Experiments in the psychological
laboratories have shown that nerve cells shrivel up and lose their
vitality under loss of sleep. Let this go on for any considerable
length of time, and the loss is irreparable; for the cells can never
recuperate. This is especially true in the case of children or young
people. Many school boys and girls, indeed many college students, are
making slow progress in their studies not because they are mentally slow
or inefficient, not even chiefly because they lose time that should be
put on their lessons, but because they are incapacitating their brains
for good service through late hours and the consequent loss of sleep.
Add to this condition that of worry, which often accompanies it from the
fact of failure in lessons, and a naturally good and well-organized
nervous system is sure to fail. Worry, from whatever cause, should be
avoided as one would avoid poison, if we would bring ourselves to the
highest degree of efficiency. Not only does worry temporarily unfit the
mind for its best work, but its evil results are permanent, since the
mind is left with a poorly developed or undone nervous system through
which to work, even after the cause for worry has been removed and the
worry itself has ceased.

Not only should each individual seek to control the causes of worry in
his own life, but the home and the school should force upon childhood as
few causes for worry as may be. Children's worry over fears of the dark,
over sickness and death, over prospective but delayed punishment, over
the thousand and one real or imaginary troubles of childhood, should be
eliminated so far as possible. School examinations that prey on the
peace of mind, threats of failure of promotion, all nagging and sarcasm,
and whatever else may cause continued pain or worry to sensitive minds
should be barred from our schoolroom methods and practice. The price we
force the child to pay for results through their use is too great for
them to be tolerated. We must seek a better way.

THE FACTORS IN GOOD NUTRITION.--For the best nutrition there is
necessity first of all plenty of nourishing and healthful food. Science
and experience have both disproved the supposition that students should
be scantily fed. O'Shea claims that many brain workers are far short of
their highest grade of efficiency because of starving their brains from
poor diet. And not only must the food be of the right quality, but the
body must be in good health. Little good to eat the best of food unless
it is being properly digested and assimilated. And little good if all
the rest is as it should be, and the right amount of oxidation does not
go on in the brain so as to remove the worn-out cells and make place for
new ones. This warns us that pure air and a strong circulation are
indispensable to the best working of our brains. No doubt many students
who find their work too hard for them might locate the trouble in their
stomachs or their lungs or the food they eat, rather than in their
minds.

5. PROBLEMS FOR INTROSPECTION AND OBSERVATION

1. Estimate the mental progress made by the child during the first five
years and compare with that made during the second five years of its
life. To do this make a list, so far as you are able, of the
acquisitions of each period. What do you conclude as to the importance
of play and freedom in early education? Why not continue this method
instead of sending the child to school?

2. Which has the better opportunity for sensory training, the city child
or the country child? For social training? For motor development through
play? It is said by specialists that country children are not as good
players as city children. Why should this be the case?

3. Observe carefully some group of children for evidences of lack of
sensory training (Interest in sensory objects, skill in observation,
etc.). For lack of motor training (Failure in motor control,
awkwardness, lack of skill in play, etc.). Do you find that general
mental ability seems to be correlated with sensory and motor ability, or
not?

4. What sensory training can be had from (1) geography, (2) agriculture,
(3) arithmetic, (4) drawing? What lines of motor training ought the
school to afford, (1) in general, (2) for the hand, (3) in the grace and
poise of carriage or bearing, (4) in any other line? Make observation
tests of these points in one or more school rooms and report the
results.

5. Describe what you think must be the type of mental life of Helen
Keller. (Read "The World I Live In," by Helen Keller.)

6. Study groups of children for signs of deficiency in brain power from
lack of nutrition. From fatigue. From worry. From lack of sleep.

CHAPTER V

HABIT

Habit is our "best friend or worst enemy." We are "walking bundles of
habits." Habit is the "fly-wheel of society," keeping men patient and
docile in the hard or disagreeable lot which some must fill. Habit is a
"cable which we cannot break." So say the wise men. Let me know your
habits of life and you have revealed your moral standards and conduct.
Let me discover your intellectual habits, and I understand your type of
mind and methods of thought. In short, our lives are largely a daily
round of activities dictated by our habits in this line or that. Most of
our movements and acts are habitual; we think as we have formed the
habit of thinking; we decide as we are in the habit of deciding; we
sleep, or eat, or speak as we have grown into the habit of doing these
things; we may even say our prayers or perform other religious exercises
as matters of habit. But while habit is the veriest tyrant, yet its good
offices far exceed the bad even in the most fruitless or depraved life.

1. THE NATURE OF HABIT

Many people when they speak or think of habit give the term a very
narrow or limited meaning. They have in mind only certain moral or
personal tendencies usually spoken of as one's "habits." But in order to
understand habit in any thorough and complete way we must, as suggested
by the preceding paragraph, broaden our concept to include every
possible line of physical and mental activity. Habit may be defined as
_the tendency of the nervous system to repeat any act that has been
performed once or many times_.

THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF HABIT.--Habit is to be explained from the
standpoint of its physical basis. Habits are formed because the tissues
of our brains are capable of being modified by use, and of so retaining
the effects of this modification that the same act is easier of
performance each succeeding time. This results in the old act being
repeated instead of a new one being selected, and hence the old act is
perpetuated.

Even dead and inert matter obeys the same principles in this regard as
does living matter. Says M. Leon Dumont: "Everyone knows how a garment,
having been worn a certain time, clings to the shape of the body better
than when it was new; there has been a change in the tissue, and this
change is a new habit of cohesion; a lock works better after having been
used some time; at the outset more force was required to overcome
certain roughness in the mechanism. The overcoming of this resistance is
a phenomenon of habituation. It costs less trouble to fold a paper when
it has been folded already. This saving of trouble is due to the
essential nature of habit, which brings it about that, to reproduce the
effect, a less amount of the outward cause is required. The sounds of a
violin improve by use in the hands of an able artist, because the fibers
of the wood at last contract habits of vibration conformed to harmonic
relations. This is what gives such inestimable value to instruments that
have belonged to great masters. Water, in flowing, hollows out for
itself a channel, which grows broader and deeper; and, after having
ceased to flow, it resumes when it flows again the path traced for
itself before. Just so, the impressions of outer objects fashion for
themselves in the nervous system more and more appropriate paths, and
these vital phenomena recur under similar excitements from without, when
they have been interrupted for a certain time."[2]

ALL LIVING TISSUE PLASTIC.--What is true of inanimate matter is doubly
true of living tissue. The tissues of the human body can be molded into
almost any form you choose if taken in time. A child may be placed on
his feet at too early an age, and the bones of his legs form the habit
of remaining bent. The Flathead Indian binds a board on the skull of his
child, and its head forms the habit of remaining flat on the top. Wrong
bodily postures produce curvature of the spine, and pernicious modes of
dress deform the bones of the chest. The muscles may be trained into the
habit of keeping the shoulders straight or letting them droop; those of
the back, to keep the body well up on the hips, or to let it sag; those
of locomotion, to give us a light, springy step, or to allow a shuffling
carriage; those of speech, to give us a clear-cut, accurate
articulation, or a careless, halting one; and those of the face, to give
us a cheerful cast of countenance, or a glum and morose expression.

HABIT A MODIFICATION OF BRAIN TISSUE.--But the nervous tissue is the
most sensitive and easily molded of all bodily tissues. In fact, it is
probable that the real _habit_ of our characteristic walk, gesture, or
speech resides in the brain, rather than in the muscles which it
controls. So delicate is the organization of the brain structure and so
unstable its molecules, that even the perfume of the flower, which
assails the nose of a child, the song of a bird, which strikes his ear,
or the fleeting dream, which lingers but for a second in his sleep, has
so modified his brain that it will never again be as if these things had
not been experienced. Every sensory current which runs in from the
outside world; every motor current which runs out to command a muscle;
every thought that we think, has so modified the nerve structure through
which it acts, that a tendency remains for a like act to be repeated.
Our brain and nervous system is daily being molded into fixed habits of
acting by our thoughts and deeds, and thus becomes the automatic
register of all we do.

The old Chinese fairy story hits upon a fundamental and vital truth.
These celestials tell their children that each child is accompanied by
day and by night, every moment of his life, by an invisible fairy, who
is provided with a pencil and tablet. It is the duty of this fairy to
put down every deed of the child, both good and evil, in an indelible
record which will one day rise as a witness against him. So it is in
very truth with our brains. The wrong act may have been performed in
secret, no living being may ever know that we performed it, and a
merciful Providence may forgive it; but the inexorable monitor of our
deeds was all the time beside us writing the record, and the history of
that act is inscribed forever in the tissues of our brain. It may be
repented of bitterly in sackcloth and ashes and be discontinued, but its
effects can never be quite effaced; they will remain with us a handicap
till our dying day, and in some critical moment in a great emergency we
shall be in danger of defeat from that long past and forgotten act.

WE MUST FORM HABITS.--We _must_, then, form habits. It is not at all in
our power to say whether we will form habits or not; for, once started,
they go on forming themselves by day and night, steadily and
relentlessly. Habit is, therefore, one of the great factors to be
reckoned with in our lives, and the question becomes not, Shall we form
habits? but _What habits we shall form._ And we have the determining of
this question largely in our own power, for habits do not just happen,
nor do they come to us ready made. We ourselves make them from day to
day through the acts we perform, and in so far as we have control over
our acts, in that far we can determine our habits.

2. THE PLACE OF HABIT IN THE ECONOMY OF OUR LIVES

Habit is one of nature's methods of economizing time and effort, while
at the same time securing greater skill and efficiency. This is easily
seen when it is remembered that habit tends towards _automatic_ action;
that is, towards action governed by the lower nerve centers and taking
care of itself, so to speak, without the interference of consciousness.
Everyone has observed how much easier in the performance and more
skillful in its execution is the act, be it playing a piano, painting a
picture, or driving a nail, when the movements involved have ceased to
be consciously directed and become automatic.

HABIT INCREASES SKILL AND EFFICIENCY.--Practically all increase in
skill, whether physical or mental, depends on our ability to form
habits. Habit holds fast to the skill already attained while practice or
intelligence makes ready for the next step in advance. Could we not form
habits we should improve but little in our way of doing things, no
matter how many times we did them over. We should now be obliged to go
through the same bungling process of dressing ourselves as when we
first learned it as children. Our writing would proceed as awkwardly in
the high school as the primary, our eating as adults would be as messy
and wide of the mark as when we were infants, and we should miss in a
thousand ways the motor skill that now seems so easy and natural. All
highly skilled occupations, and those demanding great manual dexterity,
likewise depend on our habit-forming power for the accurate and
automatic movements required.

So with mental skill. A great portion of the fundamentals of our
education must be made automatic--must become matters of habit. We set
out to learn the symbols of speech. We hear words and see them on the
printed page; associated with these words are meanings, or ideas. Habit
binds the word and the idea together, so that to think of the one is to
call up the other--and language is learned. We must learn numbers, so we
practice the "combinations," and with 4x6, or 3x8 we associate 24. Habit
secures this association in our minds, and lo! we soon know our
"tables." And so on throughout the whole range of our learning. We learn
certain symbols, or facts, or processes, and habit takes hold and
renders these automatic so that we can use them freely, easily, and with
skill, leaving our thought free for matters that cannot be made
automatic. One of our greatest dangers is that we shall not make
sufficiently automatic, enough of the necessary foundation material of
education. Failing in this, we shall at best be but blunderers
intellectually, handicapped because we failed to make proper use of
habit in our development.

For, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, there is a limit to our
mental energy and also to the number of objects to which we are able to
attend. It is only when attention has been freed from the many things
that can always be thought or done _in the same way_, that the mind can
devote itself to the real problems that require judgment, imagination or
reasoning. The writer whose spelling and punctuation do not take care of
themselves will hardly make a success of writing. The mathematician
whose number combinations, processes and formulae are not automatic in
his mind can never hope to make progress in mathematical thinking. The
speaker who, while speaking, has to think of his gestures, his voice or
his enunciation will never sway audiences by his logic or his eloquence.

HABIT SAVES EFFORT AND FATIGUE.--We do most easily and with least
fatigue that which we are accustomed to do. It is the new act or the
strange task that tires us. The horse that is used to the farm wearies
if put on the road, while the roadster tires easily when hitched to the
plow. The experienced penman works all day at his desk without undue
fatigue, while the man more accustomed to the pick and the shovel than
to the pen, is exhausted by a half hour's writing at a letter. Those who
follow a sedentary and inactive occupation do not tire by much sitting,
while children or others used to freedom and action may find it a
wearisome task merely to remain still for an hour or two.

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