The Mind and Its Education | Page 9

should always be verified by
reference to one's own experience, and observation of others.
Especially should prospective teachers constantly correlate the lessons
of the book with the observation of children at work in the school. The
problems suggested for observation and introspection will, if mastered,
do much to render practical and helpful the truths of psychology.
1. Think of your home as you last left it. Can you see vividly just how
it looked, the color of the paint on the outside, with the familiar form of
the roof and all; can you recall the perfume in some old drawer, the
taste of a favorite dish, the sound of a familiar voice in farewell?
2. What illustrations have you observed where the mental content of the
moment seemed chiefly thinking (knowledge process); chiefly emotion
(feeling process); chiefly choosing, or self-compulsion (willing
process)?
3. When you say that you remember a circumstance that occurred
yesterday, how do you remember it? That is, do you see in your mind
things just as they were, and hear again sounds which occurred, or feel

again movements which you performed? Do you experience once more
the emotions you then felt?
4. What forms of expression most commonly reveal thought; what
reveal emotions? (i.e., can you tell what a child is thinking about by the
expression on his face? Can you tell whether he is angry, frightened,
sorry, by his face? Is speech as necessary in expressing feeling as in
expressing thought?)
5. Try occasionally during the next twenty-four hours to turn quickly
about mentally and see whether you can observe your thinking, feeling,
or willing in the very act of taking place.
6. What becomes of our mind or consciousness while we are asleep?
How are we able to wake up at a certain hour previously determined?
Can a person have absolutely nothing in his mind?
7. Have you noticed any children especially adept in expression? Have
you noticed any very backward? If so, in what form of expression in
each case?
8. Have you observed any instances of expression which you were at a
loss to interpret (remember that "expression" includes every form of
physical action, voice, speech, face, form, hand, etc.)?
CHAPTER II
ATTENTION
How do you rank in mental ability, and how effective are your mind's
grasp and power? The answer that must be given to these questions will
depend not more on your native endowment than on your skill in using
attention.
1. NATURE OF ATTENTION
It is by attention that we gather and mass our mental energy upon the
critical and important points in our thinking. In the last chapter we saw

that consciousness is not distributed evenly over the whole field, but
"piled up," now on this object of thought, now on that, in obedience to
interest or necessity. The concentration of the mind's energy on one
object of thought is attention.
THE NATURE OF ATTENTION.--Everyone knows what it is to
attend. The story so fascinating that we cannot leave it, the critical
points in a game, the interesting sermon or lecture, the sparkling
conversation--all these compel our attention. So completely is our
mind's energy centered on them and withdrawn from other things that
we are scarcely aware of what is going on about us.
We are also familiar with another kind of attention. For we all have
read the dull story, watched the slow game, listened to the lecture or
sermon that drags, and taken part in conversation that was a bore. We
gave these things our attention, but only with effort. Our mind's energy
seemed to center on anything rather than the matter in hand. A
thousand objects from outside enticed us away, and it required the
frequent "mental jerk" to bring us to the subject in hand. And when
brought back to our thought problem we felt the constant "tug" of mind
to be free again.
NORMAL CONSCIOUSNESS ALWAYS IN A STATE OF
ATTENTION.--But this very effort of the mind to free itself from one
object of thought that it may busy itself with another is because
attention is solicited by this other. Some object in our field of
consciousness is always exerting an appeal for attention; and to attend
to one thing is always to attend away from a multitude of other things
upon which the thought might rest. We may therefore say that attention
is constantly selecting in our stream of thought those aspects that are to
receive emphasis and consideration. From moment to moment it
determines the points at which our mental energy shall be centered.
2. THE EFFECTS OF ATTENTION
ATTENTION MAKES ITS OBJECT CLEAR AND
DEFINITE.--Whatever attention centers upon stands out sharp and
clear in consciousness. Whether it be a bit of memory, an "air-castle," a

sensation from an aching tooth, the reasoning on