10.  How is it possible to extend the period devoted to a lesson in reading, or in geography, or in Latin, beyond the time required to read a story or draw a map, or translate a paragraph?

11.  Why is it possible to have longer recitation periods in the upper grades and in the high school than in the primary school?

12.  Give examples from your class work of free attention; of forced attention; of free derived attention.

13.  In what sense is it true that we work hardest when we give free attention?

14.  In what sense is it true that we work hardest when we give forced attention?

15.  Can you give any example of superficiality or inaccuracy which has resulted from divided attention, upon the part of any member of one of your classes?

16.  Does free attention imply lack of effort?

17.  Name incidents which you think might properly be offered boys and girls in order to secure free derived attention.

18.  Can you cite any example in your teaching in which children have progressed from forced to free attention?

19.  What interests have been developed in your classes which you think may make possible the giving of free attention in the field in question, even after school days are over?

20.  How can you teach children what it is to concentrate their attention and the value of concentrated attention?

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IV.  THE FORMATION OF HABITS

Habit in its simplest form is the tendency to do, think, or act as one has done, thought, or acted in the past.  It is the tendency to repeat activities of all kinds.  It is the tendency which makes one inclined to do the familiar action rather than a new one.  In a broader sense, habit formation means learning.  It is a statement of the fact that conduct is modifiable and that such modifications may become permanent.

The fact of learning depends physiologically on the plasticity of the nervous system.  The neurones, particularly those concerned with intellectual life, are not only sensitive to nerve currents but are modified by them.  The point where the greatest change seems to take place is at the synapses, but what this modification is, no one knows.  There are several theories offered as explanations of what happens, but no one of them has been generally accepted, although the theory of chemical change seems to be receiving the strongest support at present.  There can be no disagreement, however, as to the effects of this change, whatever it may be.  Currents originally passing with difficulty over a certain conduction unit later pass with greater and greater ease.  The resistance which seems at first to be present gradually disappears, and to that extent is the conduct modified.  This same element of plasticity accounts for the breaking of habits.  In this case the action is double, for it implies the disuse of certain connections which have been made and the forming of others; for the breaking of a bad habit means the beginning of a good one.