| Study Questions 1. What does the process of imitation become when the conception of its employment fits that described in the previous chapter? 2. From where did the conception and use of concentration spring? 3. What has not been realized in connection with concentration? 4. What causes children to develop defects such as mind-wandering? 5. What remedy is then applied? 6. What is the only satisfactory way to end arguments over the benefits of "concentration?" Why? 7. On what basis should statements and arguments in connection with psycho-physical activities be accepted? 8. What will the pupil who attempts to "concentrate" on the teacher's orders for a particular activity really be doing? 9. What will the pupil accomplish by attempting to concentrate? 10. What condition is present in a person who has developed "mind- wandering?" 11. What does the co-ordinated use of the different parts of the organism call for? 12. What usually happens vis-a-vis the projection of orders? 13. What does the projection of continued, conscious orders call for? 14. Why and how does mal-co-ordinated movement happen? 15. What habit do pupils find great difficulty in breaking when asked to project a series of connected orders continuously? 16. What difficulty do pupils find vis-a-vis the relationship of conscious thinking to movement? 17. What reason do pupils give for this difficulty? 18. Why is this reason a delusion? 19. Why is the insistence on the necessity and importance of the sustained projection of orders not new? 20. How do people who follow the "end-gaining principle" differ from people who follow the "means-whereby" principle in their approach to psycho-physical activity in the sphere of projecting orders? 21. What never occurs to people who believe that they cannot attend to two things at once? Why? 22. What fixes the stage on the evolutionary plane where we stand, as a mass, today? 23. What is the relationship between adopting the remedy of concentration and the inability to do more than one thing at a time? 24. What is the condition in which the process of true concentration is present, and why would a subject in such a condition not even be aware of a need for concentration? 25. Of what is this whole book dedicated to the exposure? Thought Question 1. Alexander writes (p. 259) that "there is little doubt that the child of, say, two hundred years ago was born with comparatively reliable instincts, adequate respiratory need and all the necessary psycho-physical equipment which would have made for satisfactory development, if the educational process adopted had been on a plane of conscious control, that is, worked out on the principle of the "means- whereby." Why do you think Alexander has "little doubt" that children 200 years ago were born better off than children of today? What data or observations might support such a claim? If these children of 200 years ago began developing poor psycho-physical functioning as a result of the educational system (which two hundred years ago most children did not have access to), did they then, as some kind of acquired characteristic, pass this poor psycho-physical functioning on to their children? Or has the educational system become more and more based on the "end-gaining" principle, thus worsening even further children's psycho-physical functioning? |
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