the child by endowing him with habits making for neatness, regularity,
accuracy, obedience, etc. A detailed study of habit in its relation to
education will be made in Chapter XXII.


CONSCIOUS REACTION

=An Example.=--The third and highest form of human reaction is known as
ideal, or conscious, reaction. In this form of reaction the mind,
through its present ideas, reacts upon some situation or difficulty in
such a way as to adjust itself satisfactorily to the problem with which
it is faced. As an example of such a conscious reaction, or adjustment,
may be taken the case of a young lad who was noticed standing over a
stationary iron grating through which he had dropped a small coin. A few
moments later the lad was seen of his own accord to take up a rod lying
near, smear the end with tar and grease from the wheel of a near by
wagon, insert the rod through the grating, and thus recover his lost
coin. An analysis of the mental movements involved previously to the
actual recovery of the coin will illustrate in general the nature of a
conscious reaction, or adjustment.

=Factors Involved in Process.=--In such an experience the consciousness
of the lad is at the outset occupied with a definite problem, or felt
need, demanding adjustment--the recovering of the lost coin, which need
acts as a stimulus to the consciousness and gives direction and value to
the resulting mental activity. Acting under the demands of this problem,
or need, the mind displays an intelligent initiative in the selecting of
ideas--stick, adhesion, tar, etc., felt to be of value for securing the
required new adjustment. The mind finally combines these selected ideas
into an organized system, or a new experience, which is accepted