MENTAL WASTE AND ECONOMY. 2 
at of 
rings 
tion. 
as a 
pen 
exi- 
gz of 
ating 
4d in 
zlish 
one 
tion, 
hat 
sted 
the 
ln a 
antal 
18 of 
mon 
pon 
. his 
aght 
, the 
1an- 
the 
ther 
S a 
vous 
ate 
Jne 
v in 
5 all 
life, 
Tom 
nly 
self 
and 
. its 
y for 
‘bool 
logy 
ust 
be concentration. One thing at a time, and that intensely. The student 
must study intensely while he studies, then rest intensely. Concen- 
trated attention is the normal and natural condition of the mind. Over- 
exertion arises not from studying too hard, but from studying too many 
hours. It may be too many hours in a day, it may be too many hours at 
a time. Either is bad and causes plenty of mischief ; but there is no psy- 
chological warrant for any injury resulting from intensity of mental work. 
One of the chief causes of mind-wandering is the undue prevalence of 
eye and hand study. The pupil is supposed to sit at his desk and gather 
his knowledge from the dead symbols of the printed page. Every natural 
impulse of the child rebels against such drudgery, and, drawn by these 
impulses, his thoughts fly away to the images of real beings and real 
things. This is one of the long list of evils that have followed the inven- 
sion of printing. I am aware of the present popularity of the graphic 
method of teaching, and I am aware of the readiness with which many 
things may be presented through the eye; but yet through the ear there 
is a certain fixing of the attention and impression on the memory, a cer- 
lain intimate relation with the emotional life, and a certain immediate 
access to the soul of the child, that leads me to hope that in the future of 
pedagogy less stress will be laid upon the eve and the hand and more upon 
she ear and the tongue. 
Leaving these considerations for whatever speculative value they may 
have, this much at least would seem to be demanded in the interests of 
mental economy. Let the pupil when studying by himself be engaged with 
studies which necessarily engross the attention—such, for instance, as draw- 
ing, or such manual work as demands constantly changing adaptations ; 
and for older students, algebra, geometry, or other subjects which, though 
aot absolutely requiring the whole attention, yet for that individual stu- 
dent have sufficient interest to hold it. As for all other branches, let 
them be taught orally. In oral teaching there is not the same opportunity 
for the straying of the attention. The pupil must listen, for the teacher 
will ‘not, as the text-book, repeat innumerable times. If, furthermore, 
the teacher would insist on the pupil’s learning by once hearing, the 
training of concentrated attention would rapidly advance. I shall wel- 
come the time when again, as in ancient Greece, the lifeless text-book 
shall give place to the vital words of the teacher. 
I pass now to a second source of mental waste closely connected with the 
other. It relates to the memory. I insist on two points here. First, 
that our system of education is not calculated to strengthen the retentive 
powers as much as it strengthens other mental powers, and that this neg- 
lect, working with conditions of modern life, is gradually weakening reten- 
tive ability. Second, that as a consequence of defective retention an 
‘mmense amount of nervous energy and time are wasted in relearning what 
has been forgotten.