Philosophy of Education Vol. 6 Ch. 6 part 2

“Education is a discipline”
It is not necessary to labor as a teacher to get the children to learn their lessons. If the lessons are the right kind of lessons the children will be delighted to learn them. More effort should be placed on learning good habits and those habits that are needed for learning are formed by themselves through the use of the right curriculum. Charlotte stresses that this happens when the children process their work and tell what they have read. This she calls the “act of knowing”. She makes the point that if this process is not done the material goes into “the dustbin of our memories”. This act of knowing produces a two-fold reward. The first is the habit of attention and the second is an educated person. From this education also flow the habits of: a fitting expression, obedience, good will, right thinking, right judging, neatness and order (which flow from self-respect). All of these habits can be obtained from an education that “respects the personality of children”. The chief function of an education should be establishing a way of thinking in children that will provide a good and useful life full of “clear thinking and enjoyment” but most of all it should have a positive effect on their spiritual lives.
Forming habits is unavoidable. Either we lay down good habits with right actions or bad habits with wrong actions form themselves “of their own accord”. Charlotte compared habits to fire- “fire is a bad master but an indispensable servant.” She asks us to think about how hard life would be if every act of grooming or eating required the effort of a decision. Our days would seem so long with little productivity. She feels that most of the indecision or hesitation of adults doing or not doing things, in her day, was because the “right rails of habits” were not laid down properly for right behavior to easily run upon. We all admire the way a soldier carries himself but most shrink from the discipline it takes to produce such carriage. Charlotte says there is no other way of forming any good habit except through the strenuousness of working through a conflict. In other words - it’s hard work. The bad habits of the easy way or laziness always look pleasant but the good habit will be formed through the pain of resistance. We must each, internally, purpose ourselves to resist the bad habit and adopt the good. We have heard “sow an act reap a habit- sow a habit reap a character” but Charlotte says we need to go back one step further. We need to sow an “idea” or thought. The habit is formed by entertaining a thought which leads to an action which produces the habit. When training the habit we need to be consistent to point out the slightest slip up. The example given is of a boy who was working on being punctual to class and making great efforts on forming the habit. After days of punctual arrival he arrives late and the teacher lets him slip with no rebuke or penalty. The boy learns it doesn’t matter and the wrong habit starts to form. The habit of an ordered life is to make life “easy and spontaneous”. Charlotte says that physical fitness, morals, and manners are the outcome of habit. Most of all, habits in our Spiritual life become strong and give us the ability to live a “godly, righteous and sober life.” There is an excerpt written by a young person named DeQincey on his feelings about going to church. He describes the church, an ancient one, with beautiful details and tells how his heart was touched by a part of the liturgy that spoke about God healing the sick. This narration did not come from a child that was “bored” with church but had developed habits, not only in Spiritual training but also through beautifully written books. By reading literature with a vast vocabulary, the habit of attention was formed and he was able to grasp the message given from the pulpit easily. There is obvious value in forming good habits. It is very important to expose the children to men and women with “great minds” and “wise thoughts” through great books so they can gain courage from right opinions. Otherwise what will happen is, as soon as the young person graduates from school they will “run after the first fad that presents itself, try it for a while and then take up another to be discarded in its turn, and remain uncertain and ill–guided for the rest of their days.