171 things from this book went into her brain. Here are the first 6.
William James held that a learner's mind is a living whole, not a set of separate compartments, so teaching should help people see ideas as they flow rather than chopping them into neat boxes.
William James held that no single mind can grasp the whole truth, so many people must look at life from their own view, and we should tolerate whatever is not itself intolerant.
William James held that teaching methods must agree with what psychology shows, but cannot be drawn straight from it, so teachers still need judgement in the classroom.
William James held that a teacher's job is to train pupils in behaviour, since conduct is what education ultimately produces.
William James held that habits are made by repeated exercise, so the aim of education is to make useful habits automatic. Start a new habit with strong initiative, act on it without exception, and seize the first chance to act.
William James held that we cannot recall anything without a cue, so memory depends on connecting ideas. To remember something, one must think about it and link it to what one already knows.
William James held that effort of will is largely effort of attention. Holding your attention on the right course of action is the core of building good character.
William James saw teachers as the reflective leaders who shape a nation's future, since a nation's renewal starts among its thoughtful people and spreads outward. Teachers who keep examining the highest aims of their work are a sign of real progress.
William James warned that a hyped 'new psychology' can mystify teachers, and that disciples should stay independent and critical rather than simply accept whatever is handed down from above.
William James held that psychology is a science while teaching is an art, so psychology cannot produce classroom methods directly; an inventive mind has to make the application.
William James held that knowing a science like logic or ethics does not make a person reason or behave well; it only helps us catch and check our own mistakes.
William James held that good teaching depends on tact and ingenuity in meeting the actual pupil in front of you, and no body of theory can supply that.
William James held that teaching is like strategy: the principles are simple, but the real difficulty is that the pupil's mind is an active opponent that the teacher must read through tact and intuition.
William James held that knowing the principles of how minds work is useful mainly for ruling out methods that will fail, and for giving a teacher confidence and a fuller view of each pupil.
William James held that most teachers need only a general, sound grasp of how the mind works, enough to fit on the palm of a hand, rather than deep technical study.
William James held that teachers should not be forced to become researchers, since the caring, concrete attitude toward a child can clash with the detached attitude of an observer.
William James held that a teacher who feels like a failure at psychology should not carry a bad conscience about it. The best teacher and the best contributor of research are often different people.
William James held that the most basic fact of the mind is that some stream of awareness is always running, whether we are awake or asleep. Describing and sorting that stream is a sound starting point, even before asking why it works as it does.
William James admitted that we do not really know where our thoughts come from or how the brain produces them. He thought it wiser to admit that gap plainly than to dress up a vague explanation as if it were knowledge.
William James observed that our experience is always mixed, with a clear centre of attention surrounded by a fringe of feeling and thought. When the mind wanders, the thing in front of us fades to the edge, which explains why we can miss what is said right in front of us.
William James held that our awareness has a focal object and a marginal one, and that these can shift, swap places or change together. Vague descriptions of this stream are safer than neat, over-sharpened ones.
William James warned against building the mind out of tiny fixed mental bricks, a theory he called 'ideas', because it is only conjecture. A looser picture of the stream of thought, always changing, is enough for practical work such as teaching.
Wundt admitted that after decades of laboratory self-observation, psychology still had no universally accepted body of doctrine. Honest reflection on one's own inner experience can be useful, even when its results remain uncertain.
Wundt came to see mental life as one indivisible, fleeting process, where thinking, feeling and willing are closely joined rather than separate parts. He concluded that the neat labels we give mental functions are often self-deceptions.
William James notes an old split: popular belief judges the mind by its practical effects, while philosophers have prized pure contemplation as the higher life.
William James argues that evolution has shifted psychology toward the practical side, since consciousness is best understood as a tool for guiding useful conduct.
William James suggests that when learning a hard subject, you first grasp one deep, basic aspect firmly, then gradually add the neglected features that complete the picture.
William James reasons that since the brain's signals run back out into action, and even lofty thought depends on practical capacity, practical purpose is the more basic result of the mind.
William James held that no truth, however abstract, is ever taken in without some day shaping our action. Even theoretical thinking has practical effects, because it changes what we answer, read and do later.
William James held that a teacher's main job is training the pupil in behaviour, meaning every fitting reaction to life's circumstances. Holding back from speaking or acting is also a deliberate reaction that takes real effort.
William James described education as the organising of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behaviour. A truly educated person can work through situations they have never met before, using memory and general ideas.
William James observed that even quiet listening is a active form of conduct, with the body and attention set in a particular way. Every impression we make on others tends to build their capacity to act, so it is worth keeping that in mind.
William James held that every impression a teacher gives should be met by some reaction from the learner, since no reception without reaction is the rule to keep in the classroom.
William James held that ideas stick best when they lead to some action by the learner, because doing something with a thing is what clinches it in memory. Passive reading or hearing alone leaves little behind.
William James held that hands-on work such as experiments, drawings and measuring trains precision, honesty and self-reliance. Making things shows plainly whether you really understand, which words alone can hide.
William James held that learning is incomplete until the learner gets news of what they did and what came of it. Feedback about our actions is part of the whole experience, not an extra.
James argued that a learner's wish to know how well they are doing is natural and should rarely be blocked. Unless there is a specific practical reason, people should be told where they stand.
William James held that most learning builds on what a person already does by instinct, either adding to that reaction or replacing it. A good teacher starts from the learner's existing tendencies, since nothing can be taught without some first response to build on.
William James showed that memory is what turns a single experience into learning: the learner recalls the earlier result and changes course before repeating the mistake. An easily taught learner may need only one lesson to set a new habit.
William James held that a new habit works by substitution: a learner keeps the native impulse but turns it toward a new object or response, so the teacher's first task is to understand the child's natural reactive tendencies.
William James held that people keep their instincts even when reasoning overlays them, so the life of instinct is disguised rather than lost. Fear and love remain powerful levers for a teacher, and being liked gets results a forbidding manner cannot.
William James held that curiosity is strongest in childhood and youth and fades in middle life, when routine absorbs attention and new, demanding ideas feel out of reach.
William James held that young learners are first drawn by material objects, movement, living things and human action, so teaching should begin with things shown or done, and abstract reasons can wait until adolescence.
William James held that we become who we are mainly by imitating others, and that each generation passes on its language, arts and sciences by imitating the last. Invention and imitation are the two legs humanity has walked on.
William James observed that a teacher's own visible effort is more persuasive than exhortation, so a teacher should never ask pupils to do what she cannot do herself. Showing beats telling: 'Come and let me show you how' works better than 'Go and do it as the book directs.'
William James noted that the tone of any school or workplace is a tradition passed on by imitation, and it shifts slowly, mostly when a strong new personality sets a fresh pattern. Good culture depends on the character and tact of the leader who sets the example.
Rousseau argued that children should be spurred by measuring their own progress over time rather than by rivalry with others. Comparing someone with their former self builds drive without jealousy.
William James held that rivalry is rooted in human nature and can be channelled into fairness and generosity. Banning all competition may throw away a useful ally in learning.
William James observed that people are moved most by seeing others act, so the spectacle of effort wakes and sustains our own. A runner pushes harder when rivals are at his heels.
William James argued that a stubborn unwillingness to be beaten by difficulty, and the pride that goes with it, can be a healthy spur. Interest cannot be found in every step, so some hard work must be met head on.
William James saw a strong urge to own things as part of human nature from early childhood. Any plan to remove private property would have to reckon with this deep need for something that is one's own.
William James held that the collecting impulse can be turned into school work, so that neatness, order and method are picked up along the way rather than forced on the child.
William James observed that children learn the world by handling things, and that real, hands-on acquaintance with objects gives a firmer grasp of reality than books alone.
William James described a law of transitoriness: an instinct that is not met with the right object at its ripe moment may fade, and a habit that should have formed may then be hard to teach later.
William James held that a child's interests ripen in a set order, and that a teacher should press a skill when the native impulse is strongest, since that window may be short.
William James advised teachers to start from a pupil's existing impulses, even unhelpful ones, because those natural reactions are the best place to begin shaping new behaviour.
William James argued that our virtues are habits just as much as our vices, and that habit forms because the living nervous system is plastic and grows to the way it is exercised.
William James observed that most of our daily activity runs on automatic habit, so the most useful thing to build early is a set of habits that will serve us for life.
William James held that the great aim of education is to make our nervous system our ally, by making useful actions automatic early on, so our higher powers are free for their proper work.
James's first maxim is to launch a new habit with as strong an initiative as possible, surrounding yourself with reinforcements, incompatible commitments and even a public pledge. His second is to never allow an exception until the habit is firmly rooted.
