conditions include all those states of the soul that aid in producing vivid impressions in consciousness. Of the physical environment of the learner it is not necessary now to write. Let us pass that by for a subsequent treatment, not because it is unimportant, but because the psychical conditions are logically next in order of study. Consciousness may be thought of as a luminous quality that fills all the recesses of the soul. It has a focus and an outer field of less vivid illumination. This focus is capable of endless shifting. Thus at one moment one, and at a second moment another, area of consciousness is in the focus. We say the mind wanders. We mean that the focus of consciousness is constantly shifting. The Focus of Consciousness We put pen to paper to write upon a given theme. The focus of consciousness is unsteady. We think of the theme and lo! the tick of the clock, the creaking of a chair, the passing of a trolley car, the rumble of an engine, the presence of a fly on our desk, the rustle of the leaves in a tree near by, and countless other things, are sufficient, each in turn, to change the focus and compel the mind to consider other things. In despair we drop the pen, fold our arms, and wait the shifting of our focus to the matter of the theme. I once saw a man in church, in the presence of the congregation, go forward and adjust a lamp that was not properly suspended. He could not focus his mind upon the discourse until the lamp ceased to control the focus. Is there a power that will hold the focus steadily upon one particular field of knowledge to the exclusion of all others? There is such a power. It is attention. Attention is the power of the soul by which the focus of consciousness is held steadily upon a given group of ideas in the soul. When the soul takes notice of its perceptions we say it is conscious of them. Thus consciousness is the soul's power of knowing its own content. The perceptions in the soul seem to be in constant motion. They flow now into, now out of, the focus of consciousness; that is, they are constantly changing from the point of clear knowing, which is the center or focus of consciousness, to some region or range in which they are not so clearly known. They may even The Stream of Sensations pass wholly beyond the range of consciousness. Have you ever yielded to an attitude of mind passive to this stream of sensations? It seems as if one could stand aside and look passively upon the passing procession of perceptions. Can we arrest this procession, stop it, hold one perception in the focus of consciousness, and deny it the tendency it has to rush on? If so, we have in this power of arrest our first great educational possibility; for if we can compel the soul to regard one and disregard other perceptions, we have in doing this the possibility of reorganizing the content of the soul. The perception we arrest and hold in consciousness is by that process greatly changed. The soul becomes familiar with it. The soul gains mastery over it. The soul learns how to use it. The soul endows it with new power, and with vital relations. Thus the soul uses the enriched perception as it could not use it before. Whatever power, then, can hold one perception for a time in consciousness is of the highest educational value. That power is Attention. It has a negative aspect in that it refuses to attend to such things as may clamor for consideration. It has its positive aspect in that it may compel consciousness to rest upon one thing to the exclusion of all others. Thus attention is the power that makes possible the instruction of the learner. Without attention there can be no true teaching. The teacher must secure attention at the outset. To teach in the hope that, by teaching, attention will finally be secured, is hazardous and wasteful. It is to be noted that the teacher cannot compel attention, but the teacher can secure attention. How may this power of attention be secured? What Attention QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. For testing one's grasp of the subject, and for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. Does knowledge come into the human soul from without? If so, how? If the special senses were never to report sensations, what would be the condition of the human soul? Do you remember a thing better from hearing it or from reading it? How does this bear upon the right method of instruction? Some people are said to be ear-minded; others eyeminded; what do you mean by this? Jot down on a sheet of paper the different things that come into the focus of consciousness in your own mind in any given two minutes of time. Will the fact that you jot them down have anything to do with the character of the things which you note? Have you been telling your children, or have you been teaching them, great fundamental spiritual truths? Why should the child give expression to his knowledge? Is your class so organized that the pupils are free to say what they have in their minds? Do they keep to the subject under study? Do you deliberately cultivate freedom of expression in your class? Should you do so? Why? Have you ever seriously studied the way you know the content of your own soul? Have you any definite method cf preventing the minds of your pupils from wandering? Jot down in your note-book the things that you do in order to keep the focus of consciousness upon the thing which you most desire the pupil to consider. Is it true that without attention there can be no true teaching? If so, why? Explain fully the function of consciousness. What is the relation of attention to the stream of sensations? What power of the soul brings percepts to the focus of consciousness? Attention makes possible the enrichment of percepts. Explain this statement. In Milton's Comus the Lady, in a critical moment, exclaims, "I was all ear." What does Milton understand by this sentence? Why cannot a teacher compel attention? What follows? |