Ella L Kelly Teaching Notebook

instead of trusting to first impressions.

Will A man point a pistol at another with the intention of killing him. The pistol fails to do his will. In his heart he is as much a murderer as though he had killed him. To the world nothing has been done. The subjective act is the inward determination to an act. The objective act is the outward act. When we tell a pupil to do a thing make him do it at once. Everytime we fail to exact obedience we weaken ourselves.

Sensations{ The reflex of our language on our thoughts is greater than we suppose. A thought is an intellectual action. Sensation is the physical recognition of a fact. Sensations are carried to the brain by five avenues. Nearly all the things which we know of the outer world are received through the senses. The brain is called

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Memory is the reproductive faculty. It is a very mysterious thing. Whatever Memory sensation is carried to the sensorium makes an impression. It may be deep or faint but it is there. No impression is lost. There are two ways of studying a lesson, by repetition or a "reading it over until you can say it" or by concentrating the attention so closely as to stamp it in the memory indelibly. We do too much studying with books open. We are mentally lazy. One should commit a page every week as to strengthen the memory. Make the attention serve you instead of master you. None can conceive the work one can do by discipline of the memory. It improves our ability to reproduce impressions already made upon the mind. Our memory is strengthened by classification. Difference between people lies in their ability to classify. We have different words in use as to memory namely, recall meaning a glimpse, recollect, to collect the parts.

6 [margin] Dec. 15 1883. This has been made more clear in the study of criticism. Ideal Presence July 26, 1884.

Remember means to write the different members. In certain states of the mind everything comes out, as is spoken of in the case of persons who have been nearly drowned. We cannot forget if we try. A little story was told. A little boy had the habit of driving one nail into a board whenever he had done anything wrong or bad. Whenever he had been behaving unusually well he would draw a nail out. After several days of good behavior had passed the nails would be nearly all out. But he complained to his mother that the nail holes still remained. So it is with us the nail holes are all there. Impressions will stay and come out sometime. In the hereafter, we shall be in the use of perfect faculties. Memory is not immediately under the control of the will. Intense feeling will produce a wonderful impression. It is as if it had been burned on the mind.

We remember in three different ways. In the first we have a general idea that something has happened. In the second, we remember details. In the third we live over a second or third time that which happened at first. This last has been applied to the term "ideal presence." The child learns by abstract memory. Figures are learned in this way. The abstract memory grows weaker and weaker. The habit of learning by association strengthens memory. Let a child learn things by association as heads are strong together. If they are given unstrung they will be lost. Mnemonics is the art of memory. Abstract memory acts quickest but is not so reliable. Associated memory is slow but sure. The memory is a much better servant than we make of it. A little child learns more in the first three years of its life than any of us could in one year if we were to try our very best. It is the time when we should teach children all the addition tables.