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influence as a restraining power. Therefore, anger with the resultant scolding or threatening of the child should be avoided under all circumstances by the teacher."

Anger.

Trumbull says: "Here is a rule which, strictly speaking, knows no exception; yet as a matter of fact, probably nine-tenths of all the punishing of children that is done by parents in this world is done in anger. And this is one of the wrongs suffered by children through the wrong-doing of their parents.

"Anger is hot blood. Anger is passion. Anger is, for the time being, a controlling emotion, fixing the mind's eye on the one point against which it is specifically directed, to the forgetfulness of all else. But punishment is a judicial act, calling for a clear mind and a cool head, and a fair considering of every side of the case in hand. Anger is inconsistent with the exercise of the judicial faculty; therefore no person is competent to judge fairly while angry."

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION.

1. What do you find your main difficulty in keeping Order?
2. Of what plans have you been making use to secure Order?

3. What ill effects have you ever noted from your own use of improper agencies to secure and keep Order?

4. At what age do you find children most unruly? Can you say why? 5. What are said to be the best methods to use in Order?

Attention:

CHAPTER XV.

THE ART OF SECURING ATTENTION.

SUGGESTED READINGS.

*THE ART OF TEACHING. Fitch. pp. 107ff.
THE ART OF SECURING ATTENTION. Fitch.
TALKS TO TEACHERS. James. pp. 100-115.
UP THROUGH CHILDHOOD. Hubbell. pp. 155ff.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION. Seeley.

THE TEACHER THAT TEACHES. Wells. p. 26.
TALKS WITH THE TRAINING CLASS. Slattery. p. 53.
*PEDAGOGICAL BIBLE SCHOOL. Haslett. pp. 112-135.
NEW PSYCHOLOGY. Gordy. pp. 130ff.

SUNDAY SCHOOL SCIENCE. Holmes. pp. 34-40.

*How To HOLD ATTENTION. Hughes.

PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIC CULTURE. Halleck. Chapter II.
THE SEVEN LAWS OF TEACHING. Gregory. pp. 29-46.

Fatigue:

STUDY OF CHILDREN. Warner. pp. 137-153, 212, 236.
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW. January, 1898. Baker.
PEDAGOGICAL SEMINARY MAG., Burnham. 2, pp. 13-17.
THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. Rowe.

How to Hold Attention.

Inseparably interwoven with order and interest (which we will consider in the next chapter) is the question of Attention. To say that a subject is interesting is but another way to say that it excites attention.

Kinds of Attention.

Attention has been defined as "Fixity of Thought," and Professor James recognizes two kinds: (1) Passive or Spontaneous Attention, and (2) Voluntary Attention, or attention with effort. The former is that given to immediately interesting things, and does not need to concern us further. The latter, Active or Sustained Attention, is the one that affects our teaching.

The Law of Voluntary Attention.

"One often hears it said that genius is nothing but a power of sustained attention, and the popular impression probably prevails that men of genius are remarkable for their voluntary powers in this direction. But a little introspective observation will show any one that voluntary attention cannot be continuously sustained that it comes in beats. When we are studying an uninteresting subject, if our minds tend to wander, we have to bring back our attention every now and then by using distinct pulses of effort, which revivify the topic for a moment, the mind then running on for a certain number of seconds or minutes with spontaneous interest, until again some intercurrent idea captures it and takes it off. Then the processes of volitional recall must be repeated once more. Voluntary attention, in short, is only a momentary affair. The process, whatever it is, exhausts itself in the single act; and, unless the matter is then taken in hand. by some trace of interest inherent in the subject, the mind fails to follow it at all. The sustained attention of the genius, sticking to his subject for hours together, is for the most part of the passive sort. The minds of geniuses are full of original and copious associations. The subject of thought, once started, develops all sorts of fascinating consequences. The attention is led along one of these to another in the most interesting manner, and the attention never once tends to stray away.

"Voluntary attention is thus an essentially instantaneous affair. You can claim it, for your purposes in the schoolroom, by commanding it in loud, imperious tones; and you can easily get it in this way. But, unless the subject to which you thus recall their attention has inherent power to interest the pupils, you will have held it for only a brief moment; and their minds will soon be wandering again. To keep them where you have called them, you must make the subject too interesting for them to wander again. And for that there is one prescription: but the prescription, like all our prescriptions, is abstract, and, to get practical results from it, you must couple it with mother-wit."

How Not to Get Attention.

We cannot secure it by simply demanding it. This results in seeming attention; but real mind-wandering, and inattention.

Claiming it, demanding it, entreating it, will be useless. Nothing can keep the child's attention fixed, save interest in the subject considered.

Slattery says: "Although we could never teach without voluntary attention, no teacher is satisfied with that alone. He must work constantly toward the attention which is given voluntarily despite other attractions. This attention some teachers seem unable to gain. Their Sunday School hour is filled by a series of stories, pictures, maps, symbols, etc., which attract attention to themselves, but do not give opportunity for real teaching. One has a right to expect voluntary attention from the average nine or ten-year-old for short periods. At twelve, children ought to be able to give strict attention for twenty minutes if the teacher has thoughtfully prepared the lesson with his special class in view. If he is sure there is plenty of fresh air, and disturbances such as loud talking, continual moving about, passing books and papers, are removed, the attention will be much more intense and a greater impression can be made."

"Negatively, then, attention is not to be secured by clamor on the part of the teacher," says See. "It may not be claimed by any appeals. The teacher who in loud tones calls for attention is not so apt to secure it as the one who lowers his voice or ceases for the moment altogether. The pause in the vibrations. of the machinery aboard ship causes the passengers to awake, whereas an increase in the vibrations might only lull to a sounder sleep. 'Nothing,' says Gregory, 'can be more unphilosophical than the attempt to compel the wearied attention to a new effort by mere authority. As well compel embers to rekindle into a blaze by blowing.""

Principles Involved.

Attention will not attach itself to uninteresting things. Therefore the subject must be made to change its aspects, show new sides, and new and interesting phases. From an unchanging subject the mind, even of an adult, must wander. Either the stimulus must vary or some new attribute must be discovered in the subject. The nervous system soon tires under the strain of continuous attention to the same thing.

The Will the Basis of Voluntary Attention.

Says Haslett: "The psychology of the will is the psychology of action and attention. Whatever conduces to proper activity and attention on the part of the child favors development of volitional power. In its last analysis, will is effort of attention. A child that cannot attend well possesses a weak will.

"Interest is fundamental in attention and must be made central in the development of the will power in little children. Will, action, attention, interest are closely related and develop together. Interest seems to be the guiding star of the group.

"The child should be trained in obedience; but the will is best trained when an interest and a free expression of movement are present. And little children are to be permitted and encouraged to work out in active life the truths they have been taught, of a moral and religious nature. As far as possible the truths should be taught in the doing.

"While the attention of children of the early childhood stage is chiefly of the spontaneous or passive sort, the attention of children of the next stage is chiefly active or voluntary. They are able to put forth considerable effort in attempting to attend. Interest was the principal guide in the former stage, but while it is by no means to be discarded at this stage, yet the individual is now capable of acquiring, to some degree at least, an interest. He is able to attend to a subject and concentrate his attention upon it and actually become interested in it. The emphasis is almost always placed upon the obverse proposition that children attend to whatever they have an interest in, but it is just as true that they are apt to become interested in whatever they attend to.

"Attention is usually active in obedience. Of course the aim is secondary passive attention for all. We want the child to reach, as soon as possible, the condition of development where interest, that is the result of active attention where effort was necessary, becomes so strong and consuming that the mind will attend unconsciously to the great tasks of life. This aim is high, far beyond the race as such now, but it will be attained by and by. Teachers and parents should not go to the obverse extreme and conclude that whatever is not of natural and easy interest to the child is to be discarded. Children can be put down to hard work and required to do their work well, provided the ses

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