Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education | Page 6

1. The Problem.--The conscious reaction is the result of a definite
problem, or difficulty, presented in consciousness and grasped by the
mind as such--How to recover the coin.
2. A Selecting Process.--To meet the solution of this problem use is
made of ideas which already form a part of the lad's present experience,
or knowledge, and which are felt by him to have a bearing on the
presented problem.
3. A Relating Process.--These elements of former experience are
organized by the child into a mental plan which he believes adequate to
solve the problem before him.
4. Application.--This resulting mental plan serves to guide a further

physical reaction, which constitutes the actual removal of the
difficulty--the recovery of the coin.
=Significance of Conscious Reactions.=--In a conscious reaction upon
any situation, or problem, therefore, the mind first uses its present ideas,
or experience, in weighing the difficulties of the situation, and it is only
after it satisfies itself in theory that a solution has been reached that the
physical response, or application of the plan, is made. Hence the
individual not only directs his actions by his higher intelligent nature,
but is also able to react effectively upon varied and unusual situations.
This, evidently, is not so largely the case with instinctive or habitual
reactions. For efficient action, therefore, there must often be an
adequate mental adjustment prior to the expression of the physical
action. For this reason the value of consciousness consists in the
guidance it affords us in meeting the demands laid upon us by our
surroundings, or environment. This will become more evident, however,
by a brief examination into the nature of experience itself.
EXPERIENCE
=Its Value.=--In the above example of conscious adjustment it was
found that a new experience arises naturally from an effort to meet
some need, or problem, with which the mind is at the time confronted.
Our ideas, therefore, naturally organize themselves into new
experiences, or knowledge, to enable us to gain some desired end. It
was in order to effect the recovery of the lost coin, for example, that
conscious effort was put forth by the lad to create a mental plan which
should solve the problem. Primarily, therefore, man is a doer and his
ideas, or knowledge, is meant to be practical, or to be applied in
directing action. It is this fact, indeed, which gives meaning and
purpose to the conscious states of man. Hour by hour new problems
arise demanding adjustment; the mind grasps the import of the situation,
selects ways and means, organizes these into an intelligent plan, and
directs their execution, thus enabling us:
Not without aim to go round In an eddy of purposeless dust.
=Its Theoretic or Intellectual Value.=--But owing to the value which

thus attaches to any experience, a new experience may be viewed as
desirable apart from its immediate application to conduct. Although,
for instance, there is no immediate physical need that one should learn
how to resuscitate a drowning person, he is nevertheless prepared to
make of it a problem, because he feels that such knowledge regarding
his environment may enter into the solution of future difficulties. Thus
the value of new experience, or knowledge, is often remote and
intellectual, rather than immediate and physical, and looks to the
acquisition of further experience quite as much as to the directing of
present physical movement. Beyond the value they may possess in
relation to the removal of present physical difficulty, therefore,
experiences may be said to possess a secondary value in that they may
at any time enter into the construction of new experiences.
=Its Growth: A. Learning by Direct Experience.=--The ability to recall
and use former experience in the upbuilding of an intelligent new
experience is further valuable, in that it enables a person to secure
much experience in an indirect rather than in a direct way, and thus
avoid the direct experience when such would be undesirable. Under
direct experience we include the lessons which may come to us at first
hand from our surroundings, as when the child by placing his hand
upon a thistle learns that it has sharp prickles, or by tasting quinine
learns that it is bitter. In this manner direct experience is a teacher,
continually adjusting man to his environment; and it is evident that
without an ability to retain our experiences and turn them to use in
organizing a new experience without expressing it in action, all
conscious adjustments would have to be secured through such a direct
method.
=B. Learning Indirectly.=--Since man is able to retain his experiences
and organize them into new experiences, he may, if desirable, enter into
a new experience in an indirect, or theoretic, way, and thus avoid the
harsher lessons of direct experience. The child, for example, who
knows the discomfort of