8. Provision for individuality as an eighth factor in study

The scientific investigator must determine upon his own hypotheses; he
must collect and organize his data, must judge their soundness and
trace their consequences; and he must finally decide for himself when
he has finished a task. All this requires a high degree of
intellectual independence, which is possible only through a healthy
development of individuality, or of the native self.

A normal self giving a certain degree of independence and even a touch
of originality to all of his thoughts and actions is essential to the
student's proper advance, as to the work of the scientist. Should the
student, therefore, be taught to believe in and trust himself, holding
his own powers and tendencies in high esteem? Should he learn even to
ascribe whatever merit he may possess to the qualities that are peculiar
to him? And should he, accordingly, look upon the ideas and influences
of other persons merely as a means--though most valuable--for the
development of this self that he holds so sacred? Or should he
learn to depreciate himself, to deplore those qualities that
distinguish him from others? And should he, in consequence, regard the
ideas and influences of others as a valuable means of suppressing, or
escaping from, his native self and of making him like other persons?

Here are two very different directions in which one may develop. In
which direction does human nature most tënd? In which direction do
educational institutions, in particular, exert their influence? Does
the average student, for example, subordinate his teachers and the
ideas he acquires to himself? Or does he become subordinated to these,
even submerged by them? This is the most important of all the problems
concerning study; indeed, it is the one in which all the others
culminate.

The method of teaching children how to study

The second of these two questions relates to the method of teaching
children how to study. Granted that there are numerous very important
factors in study, what should be done about them? Particularly,
assuming that children have some power to study, what definite
instruction can teachers give to them in regard to any one or all of
these factors?

Can it be that, on account of their youth, no direct instruction about
method of study would be advisable, that teachers should set a good
example of study by their treatment of lessons in class, and rely only
upon the imitative tendency of children for some effect on their
habits of work? Or should extensive instruction be imparted to them,
as well as to adults, on this subject?

The leading problems in study that have been mentioned will be
successively discussed in the chapters following. These two questions,
however, Can children study? and If so, how can they be taught to do
it? will not be treated in chapters separate from the others. Each
will be dealt with in connection with the above factors, their
consideration immediately following the discussion of each of those
factors. While the proper method of study for adults will lead, much
emphasis will fall, throughout, upon suggestions for teaching children
how to study.

PART II

THE NATURE OF THE PRINCIPAL FACTORS IN STUDY, AND THEIR RELATION TO
CHILDREN




CHAPTER III

PROVISION FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES, AS ONE FACTOR OF STUDY



The habit among eminent men of setting up specific purposes of
study

The scientific investigator habitually sets up hypotheses of some sort
as guides in his investigations. Many distinguished men who are not
scientists follow and recommend a somewhat similar method of study.

For example, John Morley, M.P., in his _Aspects of Modern Study_,
[Footnote: Page 71.] says, "Some great men,--Gibbon was one and Daniel
Webster was another and the great Lord Strafford was a third,--always,
before reading a book, made a short, rough analysis of the questions
which they expected to be answered in it, the additions to be made to
their knowledge, and whither it would take them. I have sometimes
tried that way of studying, and guiding attention; I have never done
so without advantage, and I commend it to you." Says Gibbon [Footnote:
Dr. Smith's Gibbon, p. 64.], "After glancing my eye over the design
and order of a new book, I suspended the perusal until I had finished
the task of self-examination; till I had resolved, in a solitary walk,
all that I knew or believed or had thought on the subject of the whole
work or of some particular chapter; I was then qualified to discern
how much the author added to my original stock; and, if I was
sometimes satisfied with the agreement, I was sometimes armed by the
opposition of our ideas."

President James Angell emphasizes a similar thought in the following
words:--

I would like to recommend to my young friends who desire to profit by
the use of this library, the habit of reading with some system, and of
making brief notes upon the contents of the books they read. If, for
instance, you are studying the history of some period, ascertain what
works you need to study, and find such parts of them as concern your
theme. Do not feel obliged to read the whole of a largë treatise, but
select such chapters as touch on the subject in hand and omit the rest
for the time.

Young students often get swamped and lose their way in the Serbonian
bogs of learning, when they need to explore only a simple and plain
pathway to a specific destination. Have a purpose and a plan, and
adhere to it in spite of alluring temptations to turn aside into
attractive fields that are remote from your subject.[Footnote: Address
at Dedication of Ryerson Public Library Building, Grand Rapids, Mich.,
Oct. 5, 1904.]

The character of these aims

Well-selected ends of this sort have two characteristics that are
worthy of special note. The first pertains to their _source_. Their
possible variety is without limit. Some may be or an intellectual
nature, as numbers 6, 8, and 9 among those listed above; some may aim
at utility for the individual, as numbers 1 and 7; and some may
involve service to others, as numbers 2 and 3. But however much they
vary, they find their source _within_ the person concerned. They
spring out of his own experience and appeal to him for that reason.
One very important measure of their worth is the extent to which they
represent an individual desire.

The second characteristic pertains to their _narrowness_ and
consequent _definiteness_. They call in each case for an investigation
of a relatively small and definite topic. This can be further seen
from the following topics in Biology: What household plants are most
desirable? How can these plants be raised? What are their principal
enemies, and how can these best be overcome? Whether we be working on
one or more of such problems at a time, they are so specific that we
need never be confused as to what we are attempting.

The nature of these aims in study can be made still clearer by
contrasting them with others that are very common. The "harmonious
development of all the faculties," or mental discipline, for instance,
has long been lauded by educators as one chief purpose in study.
Agassiz was one such educator, and in his desire to cultivate the
power of observation, he is said to have set students at work upon the
study of fishes without directions, to struggle as they might. Many
teachers of science before and since his time have followed a similar
method. Truth for truth's sake, or the idea that one should study
merely for the sake of knowing, has often been associated with mental
discipline as a worthy end. Culture is a third common purpose.

Each of these aims, instead of originating in the particular interests
of the individual, is reached by consideration of life as a whole, and
of the final purposes of education. They are too general in nature to
recognize individual preferences, and they are also too general to
cause much discrimination in the selection of topics and of particular
facts within topics. Strange to say, however, they have discriminated
against the one kind of knowledge that the aforementioned specific
aims emphasize as especially desirable. Under their exclusive
influence, for example, students of biology have generally made an
extensive study of wild plants and have paid little attention to house
plants. Such subjects as physics, fine art, and biology cannot help
but impart much information that relates to man; but that relationship
has generally been the last part reached in the treatment of each
topic, and the part most neglected. Under the influence of these
general aims any useful purpose, whether involving service to the
individual or to society at largë, has somehow been eschewed or
thought too sordid to be worthy of the scholar.

Ways in which specific purposes are valuable

1. As a source of motive power

Specific purposes are necessary in the first place, because they help
to supply motive power both for study and for life in general. Proper
study requires abundant energy, for it is hard work; and young people
cannot be expected to engage in it heartily without good reason. In
particular, it requires very close and sustained attention, which it
is most difficult to give. Threats and punishments can, at the best,
secure it only in part; for young people who thus suffer habitually
reserve a portion of their energy to imagine the full meanness of
their persecutors and, not seldom, to devise ways of getting even.
Neither can direct exercise of will insure undivided attention. How
often have all of us, conscious that we _ought_ fully to concentrate
attention upon some task, determined to do so in vain.

The best single guarantee of close and continuous attention is a deep,
direct interest in the work in hand, an interest similar in kind to
that which children have in play. Such interest serves the same
purpose with man as steam does in manufacturing,--it is motive power,
and it is as necessary to provide for it in the one case as in the
other.

Broad, general aims cannot generate this interest, for abstractions do
not arouse enthusiasm. It is the concrete, the detailed, that arouses
interest, particularly that detail that is closely related to life. We
all remember how, in the midst of listless reading, we have sometimes
awakened with a start, when we realized that what we were reading bore
directly upon some vital interest. Specific purposes of the kind
described insure the interest, and therefore the energy, necessary for
full and sustained attention. "For remember," says Lowell, "that there
is nothing less profitable than scholarship for the mere sake of
scholarship, nor anything more wearisome in the attainment. But the
moment you have a definite aim, attention is quickened, the mother of
memory, and all that you acquire groups and arranges itself in an
order that is lucid, because everywhere and always it is in
intelligent relation to a central object of constant and growing
interest." [Footnote: Lowell, Books and Libraries.] If eminent
scholars thus value and actually make use of concrete purposes,
certainly immature students, whose attention is much less "trained,"
can follow their example with profit.

Life in general, as well as study, requires motive power. Energy to do
many kinds of things is so important that one's worth depends as much
upon it as upon knowledge. Indeed, if there must be some lack in one
of these two, it were probably better that it be in knowledge.

A deep many-sided interest is a key also to this broader kind of
energy. Yet how often is such interest lacking! This lack of interest
is seen among high-school students in the selection of subjects for
commencement essays; good subjects are difficult to find because
interests are so rare. It is seen among college students in their
choice of elective courses; for they often seem to have no strong
interest beyond that of avoiding hard work. It is seen in many college
graduates who are roundly developed only in the sense that they are
about equally indifferent toward all things. And, finally, it is seen
in the great number of men and women who, without ambition, drift
aimlessly through life. Well-chosen specific purposes will help
materially to remedy these evils, for there is no dividing line
between good study-purposes and good life-purposes. The first must
continually merge into the second; and the interest aroused by the
former, with its consequent energy, gives assurance of interested and
energetic pursuance of the latter.

The importance of being rich in unsolved problems is not likely to be
overestimated. Most well-informed adults who have little "push" are
not lazy by nature; they have merely failed to fall in love with
worthy aims. That is often partly because education has been allowed
to mean to them little more than the collecting of facts. If it had
included the collection of interesting and valuable purposes as well,
their devotion to proper aims in life might have grown as have their
facts; then their energy might have kept pace with their knowledge.

If students, therefore, regularly occupy a portion of their study time
in thinking out live questions that they hope to have answered by
their further study, and interesting uses that they intend to make of
their knowledge, they are equipping themselves with motive power both
for study and for the broader work of life.

Under these headings the sub-topics given, with a few omissions and
additions, might be arranged as follows:

Under first aim:

  I. Food (chief thing necessary).

                          /Birds
      1. Kinds of prey...{ Mice
                          \Moles, etc.
                          /Eyes, that see in dark;
      2. How found.....  {   structure.
                         { Sense of smell; keenness.
                          \Ears; keenness.

                         / Approach; use of whiskers.
                         | Quietness of movements;
                         |   how so quiet (padded feet,
                         |   loose joints, manner of
                         |   walking).
                         | Action of tail.
      3. How caught.....{  Catching and holding;
                         |   ability to spring; strength of
                         |   hind legs.
                         | Fore paws; used like hands.
                         |   Claws; shape, sharpness,
                         \   and sheaths.

II. Shelter. Use of covering.
                       Finding of warm place in coldest weather.

Under second aim:

I. Food (when prey is wanting).
                   Kinds and where obtained: milk; scraps
                     from table; biscuit; catnip.
                   Observe method of drinking.

II. Shelter. How provide shelter.

III. Cleanliness. Why washing unnecessary (cat's face
                            washing; aversion to getting wet).
                          Danger from dampness.
                          Need of combing and brushing;
                            method.

IV. Enemies. Kinds of insects; remedies
                      Dogs; boys and men.
                        Proper treatment. Value of Society for
                          Prevention of Cruelty to Animals;
                       how to secure its aid.

Thus a definite purpose, that is simple, concrete, and close to the
learner's experience, can be valuable as a basis for selecting and
arranging subject-matter. Facts that bear no important relation to
this aim, such as the length of the cat's tail and the shape of its
ears, fall out; and those that are left, drop into a series in place
of a mere list.

By whom and when such purposes should be conceived

The aims set up by advanced scholars are necessarily an outgrowth of
their individual experience and interests. Such aims must, therefore,
vary greatly. For this reason such men must conceive their purposes
for themselves; there is no one who can do it for them.

Younger students are in much the same situation, for their aims should
also be individual to a largë extent. Text-books might be of much help
if their authors attempted this task with skill. But authors seldom
attempt it at all; and, even if they do, they are under the
disadvantage of writing for great numbers of persons living in widely
different environments. Any aims that they propose must necessarily be
of a very general character. Teachers might again be of much help; but
many of them do not know how, and many more will not try. The task,
therefore, falls mainly to the student himself.

As to the time of forming in mind these aims, the experimental
scientist necessarily posits some sort of hypothesis in advance of his
experiments; the eminent men before mentioned conceive the questions
that they hope to have answered, in advance of their reading. It is
natural that one should fix an aim before doing the work that is
necessary for its accomplishment. If these aims are to furnish the
motive for close attention and the basis for the selection and
organization of facts, they certainly ought to be determined upon
early. The earlier they come, too, the greater the likelihood of some
practical outcome in conduct; for the want of such an outcome is very
often due to their postponement.

On the other hand, the setting up of desirable ends requires mental
vigor, as well as a wide and well-controlled experience. Gibbon's
"solitary walk" (p. 31) Would hardly be a pleasure walk for most young
people, even if they had his rich fund of knowledge to draw upon.
While it is desirable, therefore, to determine early upon one's
purposes, young students will often find it impossible to do this. In
such cases they will have to begin studying without such aids. They
can at least keep a sharp lookout for suitable purposes, and can
gradually fix upon them as they proceed. In general it should be
remembered that the sooner good aims are selected, the sooner their
benefits will be enjoyed.

Do children need the help of specific aims?

The first question to consider is, Do children seriously need the help
of such aims? They certainly do in one respect, for they resemble
their elders in being afflicted with inattention and unwillingness to
exert themselves in study. These are the offenses for which they are
most often scolded at school, and these are their chief faults when
they attempt to study alone. There is no doubt also but that the main
reason why children improve very little in oral reading during the
last three years in the elementary school is their lack of incentive
to improve. They feel no great need of enunciating distinctly and of
reading with pleasant tones loud enough to be heard by all, when all
present have the same text before them. Why should they?

Good aims make children alert, just as they do older persons. I
remember hearing a New York teacher in a private school say to her
thirteen-year-old children in composition, one spring day: "I expect
to spend my vacation at some summer resort; but I have not yet decided
what one it shall be. If you have a good place in mind, I should be
glad to have you tell me why you like it. It may influence my choice."
She was a very popular teacher, and each pupil longed to have her for
a companion during the summer. I never saw a class undertake a
composition with more eagerness. In a certain fifth-year class in
geography a contest between the boys and girls for the best collection
of articles manufactured out of flax resulted in the greatest
enthusiasm. The reading or committing to memory of stories with the
object of dramatizing them--such as _The Children's Hour_, in the
second or third grade--seldom fails to arouse lively interest.

For several years the members of the highest two classes in a certain
school have collected many of the best cartoons and witticisms. They
have also been in the habit of reading the magazines with the object
of selecting such articles as might be of special interest to their
own families at home, or to other classes in the school, or to their
classmates, often defending their selections before the class. Their
most valuable articles have been classified and catalogued for use in
the school; and their joke-books, formed out of humorous collections,
have circulated through the school. The effect of the plan in
interesting pupils in current literature has been excellent.

A certain settlement worker in New York City in charge of a club of
fourteen- to eighteen-year-old boys tried to arouse an interest in
literature, using one plan after another without success. Finally the
class undertook to read _Julius Caesar_ with the object of selecting
the best parts and acting them out in public. This plan succeeded; and
while the acting was grotesque, this purpose led to what was probably
the most earnest studying that those boys had ever done.

The value of definite aims for the conduct of the recitation is now
often discussed and much appreciated by teachers. If such aims are so
important in class, with the teacher present, they are surely not less
needed when the child is studying alone.

The worth of specific aims for children as a source of energy in
general is likewise great. It is a question whether children under
three years of age are ever lazy. But certainly within a few years
after that age--owing to the bad effect of civilization, Rousseau
might say--many of them make great progress toward laziness of both
body and mind.

The possibilities in this direction were once strikingly illustrated
in an orphan asylum in New York City. The two hundred children in this
asylum had been in the habit of marching to their meals in silence,
eating in silence, and marching out in silence. They had been trained
to the "lock step" discipline, until they were _quiet_ and _good_ to a
high degree. The old superintendent having resigned on account of age,
an experienced teacher, who was an enthusiast in education, succeeded
him in that office. Feeling depressed by the lack of life among the
children, the latter concluded, after a few weeks, to break the
routine by taking thirty of the older boys and girls to a circus. But
shortly before the appointed day one of these girls proved so
refractory that she was told that she could not be allowed to go.
To the new superintendent's astonishment, however, she did not seem
disappointed or angered; she merely remarked that she had never seen a
circus and did not care much to go anyway. Shortly afterward he fined
several of the children for misconduct. Many of them had a few dollars
of their own, received from relatives and other friends. But the fines
did not worry them. They were not in the habit of spending money,
having no occasion for it; all that they needed was food, clothing,
and shelter, and these the institution was bound to give. Then he
deprived certain unruly children of a share in the games. That again
failed to cause acute sorrow. In the great city they had little room
for play, and many had not become fond of games. It finally proved
difficult to discover anything that they cared for greatly. Their
discipline had accomplished its object, until they were usually "good"
simply because they were too dull, too wanting in ideas and interests
to be mischievous. Their energy in general was low. Here was a demand
for specific purposes without limit.

One of the first aims that the new superintendent set up, after making
this discovery, was to inculcate live interests in these children, a
capacity to enjoy the circus, a love even of money, a love of games,
of flowers, of reading, and of companionship. His means was the fixing
of definite and interesting objects to be accomplished from day to
day, and these gradually restored the children to their normal
condition. Thus all children need the help of specific aims, and some
need it sadly.