SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIY. No. 8«2 



son was captured" by his children. Many- 

 kinds of caterpillars were watched as they 

 developed into chrysalides in the cages, 

 and nearly all the different kinds of fishes 

 to be found in the streams and ponds were 

 caught and studied. Much of this work 

 was done outside of school hours. What 

 enthusiasm is this for securing attention 

 to knowledge in almost every subject of the 

 curriculum ! 



A child has many possibilities, only one 

 of which reveals itself under a given set 

 of conditions. The self is not one and un- 

 changeable, though it acts as a unit in a 

 particular situation. The group offers a 

 diversity of ideas, and the one selected is 

 less individually selfish in proportion as it 

 partakes of the group spirit. Children are 

 intolerant of personal self seekers, and the 

 group sentiment dominates partly because 

 of its larger, more universal worth. It 

 meets the needs of individuals through its 

 adaptiveness to the wants of the entire 

 group. What the group decides is for its 

 good the individual accepts. In this way 

 the group sentiment directs and rules the 

 attention of those who contribute to its 

 spirit. 



Children are rarely inattentive to work 

 which they regard as their own. The 

 group sentiment is always active in deter- 

 mining what ideas shall occupy the focus 

 of consciousness. To remain members of 

 the group, boys must attend to business. 

 Making children feel that the work is 

 theirs and not the teacher's means, then, 

 securing the attention. But this can only 

 be done by utilizing the racial instincts in 

 the educative process. This, the schools 

 have failed to do and, as a result, teachers 

 are continually working against the resist- 

 ance of the group consciousness. The 

 school is divided into two camps, the one, 

 the teacher, trying to win attention by 

 creating factitious interests, and the other, 



the children, momentarily attracted by 

 these devices but always watchful of a 

 chance to assert their social selves. 



The productive efficiency of the energy 

 released by group sentiment is seen in the 

 results accomplished under the name of 

 play. It is not the nature of the activity 

 that distinguishes work from play, so much 

 as the mental attitude assumed toward the 

 occupation. The same subjects of study 

 are tedious under the ordinary class 

 method and interesting when made the 

 order of business in a club of the members 

 of the class, of which the teacher is an 

 integral but inconspicuous part. The 

 club idea appeals to the racial instincts of 

 love of glory — showing off — and personal 

 competition, both of which are elements in 

 the group sentiment. There is no lack of 

 attention here. 



The utilization of the racial instincts in 

 securing attention to educative ideas has 

 been resisted by school-men largely because 

 of the educational dogma of effort. Effort 

 has been greatly overworked of late. At- 

 tention does its best work when the feeling 

 of effort is wanting. Effort indicates re- 

 sistance or stx'ain, and accompanies ineffi- 

 cient attention. As we become proficient 

 in our work, it decreases and, finally, dis- 

 appears completely. The reverence for 

 effort has arisen in the misapprehension of 

 the relation of feelings to attention, and in 

 the belief that strain has some occult peda- 

 gogical value. That which is pleasant is 

 not for that reason easy, nor is the difficult 

 necessarily unpleasant. It is intensity of 

 thought which counts in mental develop- 

 ment. The feeling of effort adds no value 

 to the educative process. Consciousness 

 of strain indicates imperfect attention with 

 undue prominence of muscular sensations, 

 or friction. The friction may be caused 

 by the novelty of the ideas, by bodily dis- 

 comfort, or by temporary mental incon- 



