Augustine Hickey, "To Train for the Formation of Good Habits" (1916)

[277] The subject assigned for this discussion promises nothing new nor anything hitherto undiscovered in the field of educational endeavor. Nevertheless, a brief consideration of habit formation is opportune and helpful. It should lead to reflection and should stimulate to conscientious effort toward the attainment of the natural and necessary consequence of effective teaching. Children well taught have formed good habits. Their energies and activities have been intelligently directed; their ability to do things well is the pride of the teachers and the glory of the system responsible for this admirable condition. All successful teachers have realized the crowning satisfaction of their work. They have seen graduates go forth from school trained to earnest industry and application, devoted to study, accurate in their acquired knowledge, and eager to approach those ideals of virtue which the teacher held out before them. these graduates have passed from the school's influence bearing splendid proof of the excellent quality of its educational aims and methods.

Because habit formation stands in direct and intimate relationship to good teaching, the evident lack of necessary habits in the individual is a serious reflection on the character of his early training. Unfortunately indeed, the school's chief purposes are not always attained. Success does not follow on every effort. The acknowledgment of failure is the first step in the study of its more obvious causes.

[278] Two boys graduate from the same school, having advanced together through the entire course of instruction and discipline. After twenty years one has become a captain of industry, the other is enrolled among disciples of ease. Ability and opportunity alone do not explain this success and this failure. Their associates have discovered more subtle differences. The man who has prospered is thoroughly honest, reliable, industrious, accurate, a clear thinker, strong and purposeful in his methods. The other, with the same preliminary training, possesses few of these desirable qualities and accomplishes little or nothing.

Why this strange but marked contrast? It is clear at first sight that one man is strong and masterful in the use of his natural ability, while the other is a waster of his gifts of mind and will. Can we attempt to fix responsibility? It is but fair to divide it. The individual must carry his own share. Yet honesty, industry, power of observation, mental accuracy and determination, are the normal results of careful and intelligent training of mind and will. And it is precisely the function and the duty of the teacher and the school to increase the power and capacity of the individual by developing in the faculties those qualities which make for strength and efficiency.

Call education what you will, it is infinitely more than the bare imparting of knowledge and the crowding and cramming of a receptive memory. Education aims to develop and strengthen all the faculties. This development and strength is secured only by the well-directed use and exercise, which in the very nature of man leads to the formation of good intellectual and moral habits.

Habit can be described as an aptitude and facility for doing certain things in a certain way. This aptitude is acquired and becomes a controlling factor in life through the exercise of the natural human tendency to repeat acts of body, mind, and will. Each individual feels this inclination in varying degrees and is forced to recognize in it the source of his permanent qualities and characteristics. Each human act leaves its impression on the mind and will. Each movement made carries with it a disposition to repeat that movement. Physiologists say "the organism tends to the mode in which it is exercised." Psychologists affirm "that the mind in the presence of an object tends to recall [279] other objects associated at one time or another with the object in view. This association of ideas tends to recur in the original manner and order of presentation."

Personal experience offers ample proof of the truth of these principles and urges the necessity of attention and study of this most significant fact. For what comes of this tendency? The process is simple and evident. Each repeated act strengthens the inclination to reproduce that act and continued repetition inevitably results in an established and definite course of action. This is habit—the quality which increases the power of the faculties, for it lessens materially the need of conscious effort in action. What is said and done frequently is said and done easily in a spontaneous and automatic manner. The capacity of bringing actions under the influence of habit is a great blessing of Divine Providence. It is for this precise reason that the commonplace activities of life require the expenditure of little energy because they are simplified and well ordered through frequent recurrence. Without the assistance of habit, man could make but little progress, for his entire interest and attention would be absorbed in the trivial duties of the hour, and he would have neither time nor strength for further achievement. The habit capacity is a great source of power to the individual. It is to the mind and will what muscle is to the human body. It develops readily and rapidly by use and exercise until it becomes a dominating force manifesting itself in every phase of human activity.

The proper development of the habit capacity in the child should become the center of interest of the successful tteacher [sic]. Since no task is ever intelligently undertaken without some compelling motive, the teacher in the classroom must realize clearly the necessity and importance of this special work. The children seated before her are there to be trained. The results of this required training are best measured in the number and kind of desirable aptitudes and capacities developed in the mind and will. Good aptitudes are good habits. They constitute abiding standards by which to gauge the effectiveness of the teaching and training in one particular school or in a great educational system.

In the formation of habit, attentive repetition is the one substantial [280] means to the desired end. Repetition unenlivened by interest and attention is of absolutely no value in the process. Much of the drill work in the grades is a step backward for this reason. The children are neither interested in the task nor attentive to the details, and carelessness and indifference inevitably result. During the attentive repetition of the act, the teacher is quick to note exceptions and to correct them at once. No mistake is allowed to escape unnoticed. By this means accurate repetition is secured and the single acts are being organized in the proper manner. Interest and attention are constantly sustained by worthy incentives and clever teaching devices. The need and value of skill, the duty of the child to cooperate, the brilliant prospect of success, are general motives to be constantly applied. Position in class, marks and prizes, are school inducements always available and helpful to keeping pupils interested and attentive.

The teacher must remember that while kindness and sympathy are most attractive qualities, she must be strong and insistent in forming habits. Too often weeks and weeks of repetition and practice are wasted when a little additional perseverance would have accomplished wonders. Habits are not acquired in a day. In fact, no general rule can be established as to the amount of time and repetition required. The nature of the action, the temperament of the individual, are helps or hindrances in the work. Yet with the great majority of pupils, unswerving fidelity to attentive repetition will develop the capacity to do a certain thing with the maximum of correctness and the minimum of effort.

Many subjects of the elementary school curriculum offer abundant material for habit formation. In writing, spelling, arithmetic, reading, there are numerous unchanging elements over which the child must acquire that skill which comes only from habit. In presenting these lessons, the teacher need only apply with spirit and perseverance the rules and methods laid down for habit formation. But the responsibility of the school and the teacher cannot end here. Skill in writing, spelling, and arithmetic, does not represent the highest purpose of educational work. There are certain general qualities of mind and heart which the elementary school should develop and strengthen. [281] Educators differ and dispute over questions of curriculum, method and problems of administration, but all agree that true education should lead to the development of certain definite and permanent intellectual and moral habits. Can these desirable habits be easily enumerated? The list is indeed long, for it should include all the qualities required in the making of a perfect man. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to select and emphasize one habit or another which the school as a unit should set itself to form in all the pupils. If each member of the teaching staff realized a particular need common to all the children of the school, and used every opportunity and lesson to insist on the development of this special quality, the results after seven or eight years would be truly astonishing. Cooperation in purpose and action is the secret of success. When the school selects a definite aim and purpose and every teacher works diligently in that direction, then some results must surely be achieved. How shall the school make a selection? The choice rests on a very positive basis. What habits do our children really need? Where are they weak? Where must they be made strong? In reply to these queries, let it be clearly stated that the Catholic school is advancing nearer to its highest purposes in proportion as it develops in children a love of knowledge, the power to think clearly and accurately, and an abiding devotion to the interests of God and His holy Church.

The sum total of knowledge retained is not the surest standard by which to measure educational results. This statement may seem strange in view of present-day tendencies to increase indefinitely the number of subjects taught in elementary schools. Every year, additional requirements are added to the curriculum with apparently little attention to the retentive capacity of the young mind. Yet thinking men lament the fact that our typical American is neither student, book lover, or seeker after knowledge. He is satisfied with a most superficial acquaintance with things and can arrive at a conclusion from very meager premises. Does not this fact sadly reflect the quality of training given in the school? Does it not seem that teachers are presenting mere facts of knowledge rather than developing a love of knowledge for its own sake? In some respects this condition is hard [282] to explain. The book is the storehouse of knowledge, and children are surrounded by a multitude of books. But there seems to be a positive defect in the way these books are used. Children are not trained to realize the value of a good book, and to enjoy the study of the inspiring and beautiful truths it contains. Too often perhaps, the book is in some measure to blame. The school must carefully select interesting and helpful material and supply it in abundance. The reading lesson should never become a mere mechanical exercise, but a delightful period spent in the pleasant and gratifying work of learning of people, places, and things. Children should be encouraged to read at home and to describe what they have read. Industry in this particular should always be rewarded in a special manner. If a love of good reading were carefully cultivated in every classroom, then surely a most necessary and much needed habit would be formed in the children who enjoy the priceless advantage of united efforts to that purpose. One teacher for one year may succeed to a certain extent, but enduring results will be obtained only by the active cooperation of all the teachers who have, at any time, a part in the training of the child. To form the habit of reading, to instill a love of knowledge, is to develop a capacity which will be a strong safeguard in difficulty and a source of supreme pleasure and satisfaction in after years. 

To make the love of knowledge effective, children must be trained to think clearly. Hazy, indefinite ideas are a positive hindrance in every enterprise. In teaching even the youngest children, no word should pass unexplained, no rule half understood. The pupils should be encouraged to look for the reasons behind the process and never to be content until they have grasped them. Rote recitation and memory lessons of rules and definitions not comprehended, make the pupil imagine that the has ideas, when as a matter of fact, he knows only words. A sure proof of clear thinking is clear expression. Teachers can apply this test frequently and by it measure correctly their progress in developing the power to think clearly.

Accuracy in word and action is intimately associated with the power to think clearly. If a man is never satisfied until the idea in his mind is distinct and plain, then he is easily accurate in his [283] speech and his manner of action. Yet on all sides carelessness and slovenliness in pronunciation and articulation, spelling, and mathematical calculation are causing daily annoyances and often-time, serious consequences. In the commercial life it is the man who is noted for accuracy who wins respect and advancement. It is not easy task to make all children accurate. Since they need the habit, let the school spare no effort to develop it. If a graduate goes forth from a Catholic school a clear and accurate thinker, anxious to learn, he has received a splendid preparation for the duties, responsibilities and problems of life.

The Catholic school has far more solemn and serious obligations than these. The purpose of the religious school is to develop habits of thought and action which will make the practice of religion a second nature to man. Our schools are expected to train pupils to an ardent love of religion and to a whole-hearted service to God. Each prayer in school, each lesson in religion, each hymn, each visit to the church, must become a well-forged link in the golden chain which is to keep creature and Creator in closest union all through life. In this connection, let it be remembered that mere repetition does not suffice. Interest and attention in daily religious practices is the element needed to weld them into habit. Surely Catholic education has done this service, for the flourishing condition of religion in places where schools exist is convincing proof of abundant success in this particular. May Catholic schools continue to train to these essential religious habits of mind, heart, and will, and may the crowning glory of the cause always be the ever-increasing number of loyal graduates eager and ready to think and act in strict accordance with teachings of the Church of Christ on earth.

The great general advantage of all training in habit formation is the personal advantage to the individual child. In forming good habits, he is developing himself. For habits of all varieties are acquired by a countless number of acts of the free will. Each voluntary effort of the will increases the power of the mainspring of human action. The making of good habits is the making of the strong determined will. It is the will that makes character and character makes the man. The making of men is the task of the Catholic educator. The more he studies his [284] opportunities and problems, the heavier does responsibility weigh down upon him. But this very responsibility brings its own consolations. In every effort to form a good habit, to strengthen the will, and to build character, the Catholic teacher receives all possible inspiration from the wonderful promise of Holy Writ, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."

DISCUSSION

Brother E. Felix, F. S. C., Rock Hill College, Maryland: To the mind of the thoughtful teacher, the problem of habit must ever be one of great importance and one demanding much attention and serious study. Whether it be considered from a standpoint of physiology or one of pure psychology, we cannot fail to recognize that habit is a vital factor of great moment in developing and shaping the character of the growing child. Indeed, some authors go so far as to say that education is merely a bundle of habits. We may not be willing to endorse this statement on its face value, but we cannot deny that there is much truth in the assertion.

This morning we have listened with much attention to the discourse prepared by Father Hickey on this topic, in which he has given us some general notions on habit formation, together with practical consequences which flow therefrom. On an occasion like this we do not expect to hear a complete scientific exposition of all the elements that enter into the intricacies of habit-building, nor a long array of statistics and other details which have been prepared by specialists in experimental psychology. These are very useful, and will be studied with much profit by teachers in their research work. But for our present purpose it will be sufficient to confine our attention to one or two salient features of Father Hickey's paper which have an immediate bearing on our work as educators.

The first, and most obvious fact in connection with habit formation, and really its one underlying principle is, that habits are formed and retained only by countless repetitions of the acts to which we wish to become habituated. This is a matter of daily experience. Notice the wonderful dexterity, precision, and almost mechanical accuracy with which your graduate at the piano executes very difficult compositions. What is all this, if not the expression of a well-formed, complex habit? Making all due allowances for talent and natural aptitude, must we not ascribe this remarkable coordination of movements, this correlation of the faculties of mind and body to careful, painstaking, constant, remorseless practice,—day after day, week after week, for months and years? It is said that great masters, such as Liszt, Spohr, Paderewski, [285] practised [sic] as long as ten hours a day. Accept whatever theories you will, to explain the mental and physical phenomena involved in the process,—theories biological, neurological, psychological,—for us this fact remains evident: keeping everlastingly at it brings about the desired result. If this maxim be accepted as the keynote of all habit formation, the following laws are deduced as a natural sequence:

(a) An action, or series of actions, to become habitual, must be practiced faithfully and unremittingly, at regular intervals, until it becomes almost automatic. As Father Hickey observes, the time required for the acquisition of a useful habit depends largely upon the temperament and natural dispositions of the subject. But as far as their pupils are concerned, teachers must insist on continuous practice up to the very last day of the child's school term. An observation made by the Reverend writer of the paper calls for special notice here. He reminds us that, as in all other educational work, cooperation among the teachers of a school on a determinate course of action and the number and quality of habits to be inculcated, is essential. This is quite true. It would be of little use for a child to be habituated by one teacher to walk and stand erect, to keep his desk neat and in order, to dress himself with care and attention, if the next teacher would allow the child to fall into careless and slovenly ways. The same may be said of punctuality, personal cleanliness, sincerity, and all other habits that constitute the training of a well-bred Christian child.

The second law of habit formation follows as a necessary corollary to the first: (b) We must allow no opportunity of cultivating a desirable habit to pass by without profiting by it. To insure this, all the tact, prudence and skill of a resourceful teacher must be brought into action; advantage  must be taken of every occasion of practicing a useful habit, and every step that would hinder its progress must be checked. An example: You wish to cultivate the habit of correction English expression in your pupils; a very desirable habit, indeed. To be logical, systematic and, incidentally, to be successful, you should correct every ungrammatical expression that comes to your notice; not only in the recitations of your scholars, but in their conversation and written work as well; in short, whenever and wherever correction can suitably and profitably be given. I do not wish to anticipate the author of the paper which is to follow, but let me state, in passing, that we have here a clear illustration of the advantages of habitual practice, when compared with merely theoretical instruction. You may strain every effort to explain the principles of English composition, and have the children able to recite verbatim the rules of syntax with their numerous following of exceptions; but what boots it all if their actual use (or abuse) of the mother-tongue, in their daily intercourse, is at variance with the lessons they memorized so faithfully? Not until the use of good English is a habit, not until it becomes part and parcel of their ordinary language can they truly be [286] said to have learned it well. Teachers of the primary grades may think it futile to correct a child's grammatical mistakes on the ground that he is not yet able to understand the reasons for the correction. This would be a grave error. The faulty habits which the child would thus acquire would grow with him, and it would be all the more difficult to eradicate them in later  years. All this demands attention and persevering effort, but it is the sine qua non of success.

But where shall we find the incentive, where the necessary motive power to sustain the continuous effort which is so essential to habit formation? Of what use will it be to me merely to know that I must practice, in season and out of season, in order to learn penmanship, arithmetic, phonography, typewriting, or any other useful art to any degree of proficiency, unless I can bring myself to put this knowledge into a practical form? To do this requires a strong, energetic, determined will; not a half-hearted, impulsive, vacillating will, that attempts to do wonders by fits and starts, but one that is based on a clear conviction of the necessity or utility of the end to be attained, and fortified by an ambition to accomplish that end. This is all the more true in the case of good habits, with which we are chiefly concerned this morning. Habits of ease, of indulgence, of listlessness, will make their appearance as spontaneously as do weeds in a garden; but he who would uproot these noxious growths and replace them by the hardier plants of virtue, must apply himself to the task with a diligence that is proof against difficulties, and an energy that cannot be thwarted by temporary reverses.

But should we expect to find such a well-developed will power in a child? This is the critical point of the whole subject under discussion; and, in carefully considering it, the teacher will find how closely the question of habit formation is bound up with the professional duties of his state. Among the many children under his care he will find wills of various degrees of development. It is one of his principal obligations to perfect these wills as far as this lies in his power. It is in the cultivation of the will that the Catholic teacher differentiates himself from the mere instructor and pedagogue. it is his special mission, and at the same time, his privilege and his glory, to train not only the intellect to see the beauty and attractiveness of virtue, but also the heart and the will to love and to practice it. For virtue, be it remembered, is not constituted of an occasional good act, but it is essentially the habit of doing good. Now, if oft repeated acts lead to habits, good habits, in turn, make for character. And this, in substance, is the object of the lifework of the Catholic educator: to broaden the mind, to mould [sic] the heart and to cultivate the will of his disciples, and thereby lay deep and broad and strong the foundations of the sterling character of truly Christian ladies and gentlemen.

Rev. P. J. McCormick, Ph. D., Catholic University, Washington, D. C.: I think that the various habits which we desire the school to form in [287] children have been very well enumerated by Father Hickey and Brother Felix. Both speakers have also indicated the importance of the subject of habit-formation from the viewpoint of training—educative training. They have shown that it is the chief work of the school, and no doubt we agree with them. Another phase of the subject might be here suggested for the purposes of discussion, and this refers more particularly to the manner or method of habit-formation.

For purposes of convenience we may divide habits into intellectual, moral and physical. The school purposes to form the child in all; little, however, is done for his physical formation. Unfortunately, the program does not provide for that very important division of habits. We are chiefly engaged, as a matter of fact, with intellectual and moral. We may further say that the intellectual habits are comprehended quite well by the term "habits of study," and the moral habits by the term "habits of conduct."

Assuming that this is the duty of every teacher to form such habits in their children, my point is that special care should be taken to form them early. It devolves upon the primary teachers as a peculiar task to form correct habits of study and conduct in the child from the beginning of his school career. Formation is better, more economical of energy, and safer as a process than reformation. The right habit should go before and if possible prevent the wrong taking root or becoming secure. Early formation, then, and correct formation should be the effort in a special sense of the first teachers of the children.

The school should attempt to form habits of study from the time the child takes up his first tasks. The teacher's office is to see that the right conditions are present for this formation. He should see, for example, that interest is present. No child can study without it, or without the problem or the question it assumes to be present. The center of interest, we know, is always a problem of some kind. The child must be looking for something, must have a difficulty or a question to concern him, and it is the teacher's work to see that he has. Merely assigning a lesson to study is not enough. The teacher must make the proper introduction for it, arouse the child's curiosity, stimulate his imagination, or in some way prepare his apperceiving powers for the new matter. This means that study has to be supervised, directed, and controlled by the teacher, if the act is to be correct, and if eventually the right habit is to be acquired.

Similarly is the process pursued on the moral side. In our Catholic schools we have the best moral doctrine and the best moral practices to use in our work of habit-formation. In moral matters it is the motive that counts, and I think that the peculiar work of the teacher here is to see that the child acts from the right motives. He should know why, for example, he is obedient, or faithful in his duties, why he is charitable or unselfish, in order that his motives will be built up, so to speak, into those principles of conduct which are at the base of character-formation and conduce to right living.

I would then repeat that in my belief the all-important task of the teacher is to see that habits are formed early on the intellectual and moral side, and that these habits are correct.

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Source: Rev. Augustine F. Hickey, "To Train for the Formation of Good Habits—A Real Problem in School Management," Catholic Educational Association Bulletin 13, no. 1 (Nov. 1916): 277–288.