672 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 800 



The book is a useful addition to the library 

 of the laboratory, the water analyst and the 

 amateur microscopist. Charles A. Kofoid 



Univebsity of California 



Habit-Formation and the Science of Educa- 

 tion. By Stuart H. Eowe, Head of the 

 Department of Psychology and Principles 

 of Education in the Brooklyn Training 

 School for Teachers, and Lecturer on Edu- 

 cational Psychology in Adelphi College, 

 Brooklyn, New York. Pp. xvii + 300. 

 New York, Longmans, Green & Co. 1909. 

 Educational doctrines, so far as they find 

 expression in school practise, have been un- 

 seemly erratic. This is due to the fact that 

 the scientific method has never been employed 

 in solving school problems. Education is still 

 an art, managed pretty successfully by those 

 whose instincts are adapted to it, but wretch- 

 edly bungled by all others. The schools, like 

 other social institutions, have followed the 

 line of least resistance. During the colonial 

 period, when the body of knowledge was com- 

 paratively small, when books were few, and 

 society less complex, children were thoroughly 

 drilled in the few subjects which they studied. 

 With the rapid growth in knowledge and in 

 the industries, during the latter part of the 

 nineteenth century, new demands were made 

 upon the schools. The three R's no longer 

 met the social needs, and, with the enlarge- 

 ment of the curriculum, the drill master dis- 

 appeared. The unscientific feature in this 

 change is the entire absence of accurate 

 analysis of the problem. A method that has 

 been followed is not necessarily bad because 

 of its age, nor is the new, because of its 

 youth, good. It is this uncritical, mad dash 

 from one method to another, during a time of 

 prevailing scientific investigation, that has 

 brought education into disrepute. Any book, 

 therefore, that critically examines one of the 

 educational problems, is a contribution to 

 education. And this is what Eowe's " Habit- 

 Formation " does. The teacher, Rowe main- 

 tains, interferes too much in the learning 

 process of her pupils. She neglects " all the 

 automatic (both natural and acquired) ways 

 of learning which the child has, and insists 



that he work out everything systematically 

 and under guidance." This is not only a 

 useless waste of teaching energy, but, in addi- 

 tion, it disturbs the course of development. 

 Every child has his own way of responding 

 to his environment, because of his organic 

 structure, and forced departure from this in- 

 dividual mode of reacting must be decided 

 upon only after the most careful examination 

 of the situation. Motor, visual and auditory 

 minded children illustrate the need of care. 

 Rowe discusses the manner in which experi- 

 ence is organized, and emphasizes the dis- 

 tinction between habits and ideas. " Deter- 

 mine whether the habit is an automatism 

 which will be hit upon by the child as a result 

 of his own initiative and experimental efforts, 

 or implies a definite idea which must first ap- 

 pear in consciousness before it can be trans- 

 formed into a fixed automatic process." In 

 other words, the teacher is to adapt herseK to 

 the situation. She is to " analyze the subject- 

 matter and determine what elements in it are 

 to become habitual." The way in which 

 habits are established, the manner of securing 

 practise, and the method of evoking initiative, 

 are treated in separate chapters. Initiative is 

 to be developed through appeals to the instinct- 

 ive activities, the emotions, and to specialized 

 motives. Appeals to the child's reason are 

 appeals through reason to his instincts, emo- 

 tions or motives. Practise is to be secured by 

 making " all the conditions such that the re- 

 action will take place as naturally as possible." 

 Teachers have been too willing to work 

 against the resistance of the instincts and 

 emotions. This is because, at the outset, it is 

 the line of least resistance, and failure to 

 analyze the situation causes them to overlook 

 the fact that later it becomes the line of 

 greatest resistance. One of the purposes of 

 education is to establish mental attitudes 

 toward the various subjects of study and 

 toward work in general, and Rowe deals at 

 length with the various kinds of drill in re- 

 lation to this purpose. The difficulty with the 

 book for teachers who are unskilled in psy- 

 chology is that it lacks concreteness. Illus- 

 trative examples are not as numerous as they 

 should be, but this is a less serious objection 



