Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education | Page 5

the child's early
needs are largely physical, many of his instincts, such as those of
feeding, fighting, etc., lead only to self-preservative acts, and are,
therefore, individual rather than social in character. Even these
individual tendencies, however, enable the child to adjust himself to his
surroundings, and thus assist that physical growth without which, as
will be learned later, there could be no adequate intellectual and moral
development. But besides these, the child inherits many social and
adaptive tendencies--love of approbation, sympathy, imitation,
curiosity, etc., which enable him of himself to participate in some
measure in the social life about him.
=Instinct and Education.=--Our instincts being inherited tendencies, it
follows that they must cause us to react in a somewhat fixed manner
upon particular external stimulation. For this reason, it might be
assumed that these tendencies would build up our character
independently of outside interference or direction. If such were the case,
instinctive reactions would not only lie beyond the province of formal
education, but might even seriously interfere with its operation, since
our instinctive acts differ widely in value from the standpoint of the
efficient life. It is found, however, that human instincts may not only be
modified but even suppressed through education. For example, as we
shall learn in the following paragraphs, instinctive action in man may

be gradually supplanted by more effective habitual modes of reaction.
Although, therefore, the child's instinctive tendencies undoubtedly play
a large part in the early informal development of his character outside
the school, it is equally true that they can be brought under the direction
of the educator in the work of formal education. For that reason a more
thorough study of instinctive forms of reaction, and of their relation to
formal education, will be made in Chapter XXI.
HABITUAL REACTION
A second form of reaction is known as habit. On account of the plastic
character of the matter constituting the nervous tissue in the human
organism, any act, whether instinctive, voluntary, or accidental, if once
performed, has a tendency to repeat itself under like circumstances, or
to become habitual. The child, for example, when placed amid social
surroundings, by merely yielding to his general tendencies of imitation,
sympathy, etc., will form many valuable modes of habitual reaction
connected with eating, dressing, talking, controlling the body, the use
of household implements, etc. For this reason the early instinctive and
impulsive acts of the child gradually develop into definite modes of
action, more suited to meet the particular conditions of his
surroundings.
=Habit and Education.=--Furthermore, the formation of these habitual
modes of reaction being largely conditioned by outside influences, it is
possible to control the process of their formation. For this reason, the
educator is able to modify the child's natural reactions, and develop in
their stead more valuable habits. No small part of the work of formal
education, therefore, must consist in adding to the social efficiency of
the child by endowing him with habits making for neatness, regularity,
accuracy, obedience, etc. A detailed study of habit in its relation to
education will be made in Chapter XXII.
CONSCIOUS REACTION
=An Example.=--The third and highest form of human reaction is
known as ideal, or conscious, reaction. In this form of reaction the
mind, through its present ideas, reacts upon some situation or difficulty

in such a way as to adjust itself satisfactorily to the problem with which
it is faced. As an example of such a conscious reaction, or adjustment,
may be taken the case of a young lad who was noticed standing over a
stationary iron grating through which he had dropped a small coin. A
few moments later the lad was seen of his own accord to take up a rod
lying near, smear the end with tar and grease from the wheel of a near
by wagon, insert the rod through the grating, and thus recover his lost
coin. An analysis of the mental movements involved previously to the
actual recovery of the coin will illustrate in general the nature of a
conscious reaction, or adjustment.
=Factors Involved in Process.=--In such an experience the
consciousness of the lad is at the outset occupied with a definite
problem, or felt need, demanding adjustment--the recovering of the lost
coin, which need acts as a stimulus to the consciousness and gives
direction and value to the resulting mental activity. Acting under the
demands of this problem, or need, the mind displays an intelligent
initiative in the selecting of ideas--stick, adhesion, tar, etc., felt to be of
value for securing the required new adjustment. The mind finally
combines these selected ideas into an organized system, or a new
experience, which is accepted mentally as an adequate solution of the
problem. The following factors are found, therefore, to enter into such
an ideal, or conscious, reaction: