on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, although when
studying any one subject you should, for the time being, concentrate
your entire attention upon it, as already explained; but the mind is
rested by _change of occupation_ which comes by passing from one study
to another of a different kind. The point is, that you should not
dissipate your powers by taking up too many subjects, looking into them
cursorily, then dropping them and passing on to something else. This
habit of beginning many things and completing nothing, is most
demoralizing and will result in your doing nothing well. Do not
attempt more than you can do properly. Select first the subjects that
will be directly useful to you, and study them thoroughly. Gain the
power of concentrating your attention on one subject with intentness
for several hours at a time. In the end your mind will become tired,
and you can then change to an entirely different subject, or even to
recreation, such as the study of good fiction. {56} The mind does not
need idleness, but it does need change of occupation. Probably from
three to five studies are as many as the student can profitably pursue
at once, but students differ greatly in this respect, as in others.
(_c_) DO NOT BE IN A HURRY.--Take time to think, so that you will not
take the statements in the book for granted, but will study them with a
sense of mastership. Remember that here, as elsewhere, "the more haste
the less speed." You may think that you have not time to think about
your studies. The fact is, that you have not time _not_ to think about
them, and that in the end you can do more in less time if you will
insist upon taking pains.
(_d_) DO NOT TAKE UP A STUDY LIGHTLY, BUT WHEN TAKEN UP DO NOT ABANDON
IT WITHOUT GOOD CAUSE.--At the beginning of your study try to get a
definite idea before your mind what you want to get out of your study,
and keep this point before your mind as you progress in the subject.
(_e_) CULTIVATE THE POWER OF JUDICIOUS SKIPPING.--You can do this if
you study with a sense of mastery and a clear idea of what you want to
get. It is not necessary to read every word in the book. Sometimes
paragraphs, pages {57} and perhaps chapters may be skipped. This,
however, should not lead you into the habit of careless or superficial
reading.
(_f_) BE SYSTEMATIC.--Have set times for your study of each subject, a
regular program of work. Gain the habit of being able to start at once
on your work without frittering away your time and thinking about
beginning. Apply yourself steadily and persistently and do not let
your work consist of a series of spasmodic efforts. By systematically
doing one thing at a time and passing from study to study, you can
finally, after a period of continuous application, dependent upon your
powers, alternate with a period of relaxation or amusement. Your
period of continuous study should not be so short as to prevent
continuous effort, nor so long as to over-fatigue your mind. Some
students are restless, spasmodic, and while they seem to be continually
employed, they achieve nothing. Others by a steady, continuous pull,
achieve much.
(_g_) CULTIVATE THE POWER, BY HABITUAL PRACTICE, OF FIXING YOUR MIND
INTENSELY UPON ONE THING FOR A CONSIDERABLE TIME.--If you can acquire
this, it will be most valuable to you. It has been said that the
difference between clever and ordinary men is often mainly {58} a
difference in the power of directing and controlling the mind through
the attention. Some minds go wool gathering or day dreaming, and flit
from one thing to another in a desultory manner. Others go straight
toward the object in view.
(_h_) REMEMBER TO APPLY WHAT YOU ARE STUDYING.--Study from things, by
experiment, in the field, rather than entirely by books. In this way,
what you learn will be real to you. Book knowledge is of very little
value in itself.
(_i_) BE INTERESTED THOROUGHLY IN WHAT YOU ARE DOING.--Indifference is
a fatal enemy to good work. Every subject has its difficulties and you
must not be discouraged by them. If you can learn how to overcome
difficulties, you will find that doing so affords the keenest
intellectual pleasure, and that each difficulty overcome by your own
unaided efforts will make you much stronger in attacking the next one.
(_j_) READ THE IMPORTANT THINGS AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL YOU KNOW YOUR
BOOK THOROUGHLY.--As Herbert Spencer says, it is much better to know a
few books thoroughly than to know many superficially. The same
philosopher once said that if he had read as many books as certain
other persons had read he would know {59} as little as they did.
Remember the old Latin proverb, "Multum legere non multa." [Read much
but not many books.] If you learn your small book thoroughly and then
take a larger one, you will be surprised to find how much of the latter
you already know. You can then direct your attention to the new
material and to relating it with the old.
(_k_) MAKE A LIST OF REFERENCES AS YOU PROCEED.--Summarize what you
learn and construct an index. Learn where to go to find what you do
not know. You cannot learn everything even about one subject, and the
next best thing to knowing it is to know where to find it or how to
work it out yourself.
(_l_) REVIEW YOUR WORK FREQUENTLY.--Review is not re-studying, but is
going quickly over the main points, looking at them all in their proper
perspective. This will be assisted if you make summaries; writing out
a statement of a thing helps you to understand it clearly and to fix it
in the memory. As Landon says: "The practice of reviewing keeps the
mind in touch with the main lines of the subject; secures freshness and
exactness of knowledge; shows what has been imperfectly learned, and
gives an opportunity for remedying the trouble; strengthens {60} the
recollection and accustoms the mind to recover and give up its stores;
saves waste of energy and the formation of bad mental habits; and thus
leads to complete assimilation of the subject."
(_m_) SET SPECIAL TIMES FOR YOUR RECREATIVE STUDY.--Cultivate some
hobby as a relief from your concentrated study of books. Music, some
games of cards, chess, billiards, or other relaxations, are admirable
means of recuperation. When you indulge in recreation or recreative
reading, do not let the mind worry about problems of your previous
studies. Make your recreative reading in itself have some aim. Do not
allow yourself to develop in a one-sided manner, but have interests
outside of your main study.
(_n_) IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR STUDIES DO NOT NEGLECT PROPER PHYSICAL
EXERCISE.--Remember that the preservation of your health should be your
principal aim rather than to cram your head with book learning. Study
should not be allowed to interfere with a sufficient amount of physical
exercise in the open air, but this should not be carried to the extent
of severe bodily fatigue. A healthy body is necessary for the fullest
cultivation of the mental powers, but {61} on the other hand, the mind
will not work when the body is exhausted. Moreover, see that your
studies are done under proper conditions of air, light, sun; that you
have a comfortable chair, but not one which leads to somnolence.
The suggestions contained in this paper should be of use not only to
students but to the teacher who believes, as the writer does, that the
main object which he should have in mind is not by lectures to pump his
students full of information, but to train them, so far as possible, to
think and study properly. With a good text book a lesson should be
assigned and the student should be expected to master it. The lesson
should not be so long that the average student cannot, in the time
allowed, properly assimilate it. Then in the class-room the teacher
should call up a student, question him on the lesson, or give him a
problem to work out on the blackboard. He should question the student
at all points of his work to ascertain whether he really understands
the subject. Oftentimes the student will reply to a question with
entire correctness, perhaps using the very words in the book, from
which a superficial teacher might infer that he understood what he was
saying; but if the teacher will probe more deeply, for instance by
asking the student {62} in a plausible way why some other and
conflicting method or statement is not used, he will in many cases find
the student quite as ready to accept the conflicting plausible method,
showing that he had learned by rote and did not really understand. If
the student correctly states a certain thing to be true, the teacher
should make him explain why a conflicting statement is not true and
should utilize the various suggestions in this paper, particularly
those under the second and third essentials. He should also endeavor
to cultivate in a student the proper attitude of mind, above discussed
as the first essential, and while correcting unsparingly the faults of
the student, should endeavor to make him perceive that, if he will
think, he really has the capacity to understand what he is studying.
If the teacher convinces himself that the student has not this
capacity, he should not be allowed to go on with the class or perhaps
should be required to withdraw from the school. It is an injury rather
than a help to a man to endeavor to give him an education for which he
is not fitted and which he cannot assimilate, and it often results in
putting a man into a position in life for which he is entirely
unadapted. The student should be made to realize that all labor is
honorable, and that it is far better {63} to be a successful mechanic,
laborer, or clerk than an unsuccessful or incompetent lawyer,
physician, or engineer. For every man there is some work which he is
better fitted to do than anything else, and which he can do with
reasonable success. His happiness in life will largely depend upon his
finding this work. Much time and effort are wasted in our schools in
the endeavor to fit men for spheres for which they are not adapted.
Finally, the student should be again urged to realize the importance of
not becoming discouraged. Many an earnest student, after repeated
failures, assumes a sort of hopeless, discouraged attitude of mind,
which naturally leads him into the habit of trying to learn his lessons
by memorizing in the hope of being able to pass, if only by scraping
through, and into other bad habits which have been referred to in the
foregoing pages. Such an attitude of mind should be resolutely
opposed, and the teacher, even when severely correcting a student,
should encourage him to see the possibilities that are within his reach
if he will exercise his will and put forth his utmost powers in a
proper manner. Success in the work of the world depends much more upon
will than upon brains; but all faculties, {64} whether mental or moral,
can be cultivated and developed to an almost unlimited extent. A study
of the biographies of men who have succeeded should be urged upon the
student, and such a study will show how often success has been attained
only after repeated failures. It is scarcely too much to say to a
student that he can attain anything he desires, if he desires it with
sufficient intensity; that is to say, if he possesses sufficient will
power, and if he will train himself to direct his efforts properly.
Experience with students, however, will often show that a student is on
the wrong track, or trying to do work for which he is not well adapted.
If this can be demonstrated with reasonable certainty, the student
should be the person most eager to take advantage of it, and should
alter his course of study or his aim in life, in such a manner that he
may train himself to do that work which he is best qualified to do. To
put the right man in the right place should be one of the chief aims of
education; but for a student to find that he is on the wrong track and
that he had better change to another, is very different from becoming
discouraged. The opportunities in the world are without number, and it
is within the power of every man to be a successful, useful, and {65}
respected member of society. If a student finds himself constantly
unsuccessful in his work, he should scrutinize himself carefully with
the endeavor to ascertain the cause. He should not be too quick to
conclude that he is on the wrong track, but should consult friends and
teachers with frankness and sincerity. In no case, however, should he
allow himself to become discouraged or disheartened, or to lose
confidence in his own ability to attain ultimate success in some
direction.
There are three books known to the present writer on the subject of
"How to Study," but they do not appear to have been much used even by
teachers. The ordinary student knows nothing of them. They are
earnestly recommended to all who wish to learn how to study.
First in order may be mentioned "The Principles and Practice of
Teaching and Class Management" by Joseph Landon, 1894, New York,
Macmillan & Company. This is a general book on the conduct of classes,
but on pages 12 to 24 is found the best summary of this subject known
to the writer. He has made much use of it in the present paper, and
here makes acknowledgment of his indebtedness.
Second, "How to Study and Teaching How to Study" by Frank M. McMurry,
1909, Houghton, Mifflin Company. This is a very suggestive little book
and will be valuable to any thoughtful student.
Third, "Teaching Children to Study" by Lida B. Earhart, 1909, Riverside
Educational Monograph, Houghton, Mifflin Company.