Chapter 4 Education and Behavior

In the four talk James defines education as the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior.  He gives three examples.  The first is the lecture that he is giving and the behavior everyone is exhibiting.  The other two are the educations in Germany and England.

The passage, “An ‘uneducated’ person is one who is nonplussed by all but the most habitual situations.  On the contrary, one who is educated is able practically to extricate himself, by means of the examples with which his memory is stored and of the abstract conceptions which he has acquired, from circumstances in which he never was place before.  Education, in short, cannot be better described than by calling it the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior.” (p.15)  I had never thought about education in that way.  But, you can tell very quickly when child has not been taught how to behave.  They seem to freak out and act out in the most normal of situations.  I have a friend whose child has never truly been taught how to behave period.  I have pretty much quick doing things with this friend and her child because it is just too much for me to handle.  It is not only my friend’s child but also a lot of children in this society.  How can we get our society back on track?  What can teachers do to educate not only the children but the parents as well?