L. R. Alderman

Habit second nature? Habit is ten times nature.

The Duke of Wellington.

Habits plus ideals make character. The establishing of right habits in youth can best be done by coÖperation of parents and teachers. So far as we take habit-building as our aim, education becomes definite and concrete.

At the close of his famous chapter on "Habit," William James says:—

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habit, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar.... Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out.... Young people should know this truth in advance. The ignorance of it has probably engendered more discouragement and faint-heartedness in youths embarking on arduous careers than all other causes put together.

One habit that works for success is industry. How easy it is for a bright boy or girl to get through school without acquiring anything like a habit of being industrious, even in learning book lessons! If he is quick-minded, as he has only to keep up with the average child, he needs little or no work to give him a good standing in his class. The alert child often gains all required information by merely listening to the other pupils. Thus we often find failures among those bright pupils whom we expected to find successful, because they did not learn to dig and could do only what came easily. Most occupations demand more than an acquiring attitude of mind. They demand vigorous exertion, and the seeing to it that the thing is done. But how is there to be any assurance that the child is forming habits of industry if there is not coÖperation? The child tells the parent that he has to prepare his lessons and so he gets out of work at home; he makes the plea that he is tired out by home tasks so that he may not be given hard work at school. So he misses the work habit entirely.

Politeness—a show of consideration for the rights and feelings of others—is partly a habit. Careful watching by parent and teacher is needed to establish this consideration as a permanent attitude of mind. It is with much pleasure that I note that many of the home credit cards bear the items, "Cheerfulness," "Kindness," "Politeness," "Keeping temper," "Doing before told," "Care of language," "Courtesy to parents," and the like. And it is with very great pleasure that I receive letters from parents and teachers saying that the attitude of the children in these things is becoming a habit.

Neatness and personal care are habits that mean much to any one. Some grown people cannot help being neat. Others apparently cannot be neat no matter how much they try. Something is always wrong. It is a habit formed when young, perhaps before the age of twenty. In Mr. O'Reilly's list he included sleeping with window boards in, bathing, caring for the nails, brushing the hair, cleaning the teeth, and going to bed by nine o'clock. Personal care has been given a place on the Portland home credit record[2] which is now used in some of the schools. Algona, a home credit school about twenty miles from Seattle, uses the Portland personal care section, including bathing, brushing teeth, sleeping with open windows, going to bed before nine o'clock, and attending church or Sunday school. In looking over the first home credit slips that came in, the Algona principal found that Nettie, a girl of thirteen, had earned just 7 per cent out of the 100 per cent given for a perfect record in the personal division. She had earned more than the required two hundred and ten minutes for the week in the regular work department at a hard round of preparing meals, washing dishes, sweeping, feeding the poultry, scrubbing, and so forth. But Nettie had slept with her window closed, had not brushed her teeth, had not taken a bath, nor had she been in bed at the required hour. Nettie was obviously unhappy over the grade her card received in comparison with the grades of her schoolmates. Before the next report day she had in some way secured a toothbrush, that effective means of promoting civilization, and had made sufficient improvement in her personal care to secure 65 per cent. Her grade for the third week was 72 per cent, and for the fourth, 93 per cent. Her fourth week's report showed a hot bath, toothbrushing twice a day, window open every night, and that she was in bed before nine every night but two. What her reform will mean to the entire family it is interesting to conjecture.

"Be careful about that voice, Ella," directed a teacher. Ella arose at her place, a thin, stooping girl of about thirteen. She read her passage of the lesson in a voice scarcely audible to the visitor across the room. A few minutes later the visitor was looking over some home credit report slips. "Here is a girl who did not sleep with her windows open," she said. The teacher took the blank, studied it a minute, then replied, "This is the first time that child has brought in a home credit slip. Do you recall my reminding a little girl about her voice? That is the girl, and this card may explain her voice quality."

All the pupils except two in a little Washington town learned to sleep with their windows open. Upon inquiry it was found that one girl could not open her window, as it was made for admitting light only, being built solidly into the wall. In the case of the other child, the parents absolutely refused to endanger their daughter's health by letting her breathe night air, no matter how many faddists insisted that it was necessary!

Some members of a church were discussing the problem of the spirit of incipient immorality that they felt was prevalent among children in the neighborhood. A home credit teacher showed the speakers a number of the first report cards she had received, which disclosed the fact that very few of the pupils under her care were ever in bed before nine o'clock. A few months later she took occasion to display again her pupils' home credit cards and with pride pointed out that almost every child was going to bed early, before nine o'clock. "It had grown to be a habit with the children to be up late," she said. "The immorality talked of was not yet in actual existence among the children, but through their outside evening associates was gradually working itself in. The children had only to be reminded in a substantial way that it was not only desirable for them physically to retire early, but that they were to receive recognition in their school standing for so doing, and they at once happily complied."