William Emer Miller

“ It is a strange fact that the poorly educated are the best observers. Do not lose sight of the necessity of helping the child to form the habit of observation. It is the basis of common sense. Do not let him grow up ignorant of the common knowledge and experiences.
The faculty of observation is also the basis of science and of the success of specialists in every line. The story is told of a young man, who, having made up his mind to become a naturalist, went to a celebrated teacher in that line of study. The professor set the young man at work drawing a picture of a fish. ”

“ Habits are a great part of life. The forming of proper ones should have more attention than is usually given to them. Habits is a tendency of mind to do that which it has done before. When considered in this simple way habit becomes one of the great forces in our lives. It is by taking advantage of this fact that we are able to develop rapidity and efficiency in movement. This shows itself in playing games or musical instruments and in later life in the operation of machines in office and factory.
Every child begins to form habits with his first actions. ”

“ An uninterrupted continuation of the flow of thought and undivided attention is concentration. It is the result of a well-regulated and controlled thought process. It is accomplished by patient and persistent effort. It is a reward of the highest value. There is no real effort connected with it, but you become so engrossed and interested in your thought that you are conscious of nothing else. ”

“ Each child should be a rule unto himself. Do not encourage or strive for uniformity of desire or result [Pg 15] in your children. Let them reveal those distinctive characteristics with which they are endowed and then encourage and assist them in their development.
A child will excel in some things and possibly be deficient in others. He will naturally wish to play most often that game in which he does best. Do not deny this game, but use it as a reward, when the child does well the thing he most needs. ”

“ Suggestion to be of value must get beyond the critical and analytical activity of the conscious mind and become placed in the sub-conscious. If the conscious mind denies the statement, either audibly or to itself, the sub-conscious is not influenced. The most profitable time to plant these positive seed-thoughts is just before the child "drops off to sleep."
The sub-conscious mind, which is influenced by the suggestion, never rests. It is the mind which controls the breathing, heart beat and other "sub-conscious action" of the body. It is working all the night through. ”

“ Lack of ability to properly use the senses is a handicap in life and a subtle foe to success.
In the beginning all the brain does is to store the simple sense impressions. The baby sees his mother many times before he recognizes her. The eye nerve carries to the brain the picture of the mother's face and stores it there. Soon the brain perceives the similarity and the child recognizes her. The fact that in some way the brain retains the first, second, third, etc., impressions becomes the foundation of recognition. ”

“ Then he throws it higher and does the same several times, the last time he goes through the same motion without the ball and nine-tenths of the audience will swear that they saw it actually disappear in the air. If we with years of experience in sensation and thought are so easily deceived can you justly punish a child for yielding to the same mental tendencies? ”

“ It was lodged in her mind that her lies caused people to avoid her, to dislike her; but that if she were truthful she would make people like her, would make friends and attract a great deal more attention than in any other way. ”

“ The object in your being away from the table is to keep the others from repeating the answer of the first child when they have not finished the count for themselves. From a simple beginning of a straight row of a few sticks, the game can be developed to any degree of complexity, so that it will tax the powers of the most alert and developed mind. The children will soon be able to glance at the group of sticks and count them from their mind's eye picture while they are coming to you and not have to stand at the table while counting them. ”

“ If the sense nerve failed to carry the image of the face there would be no comparison and no recognition. Without sense impression there can be no knowledge. Imperfect sense impressions can only result in imperfect knowledge.
Each set of sense nerves carries its impressions to a different area of the brain. ”

“ Parental wisdom and duty are to find out what the child is especially endowed for and to guide him in taking advantage of these natural gifts, and at the same time inducing a general development in other lines.
Because of past misunderstanding or lack of understanding of its importance in every line of effort, including science, engineering, and every business development, many parents have discouraged their children in the use of their imagination. Every leader in commercial and industrial life is a man who has learned to use this faculty. ”

“ Easily diverted attention is a contributing cause of failure in every undertaking and if allowed to continue, will become habitual absent-mindedness. See to it that your child does not acquire this unfortunate handicap.
The cure for diverted attention is to enter whole-heartedly and wholly into everything that you do, no matter how trivial it may be, do not change or lose your enthusiasm over it until fully completed. If you discover something more desirable, put it aside for the time being and attend to the thing started, until you have finished. ”

“ The senses are the tools, by the use of which the mind accumulates the knowledge which it uses in memory, thought, judgment, imagination, and all the mental operations.
Professor W. Prior says: "The foundation of all mental development is the activity of the senses."
The first step in mental growth is the making of impressions on the brain by the senses. The senses are the instruments by the use of which all knowledge is acquired.
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Sense training is the logical beginning of all Education. ”

“ When the brain is not injured, the same result is brought about by lack of Attention. The eye can look straight at an object and you do not perceive it. The brain does not accept any impression of it.
Attention is necessary that the sense impressions may be properly perceived and recognized; and this completed mental operation is commonly called Observation. Trained senses that react quickly make possible quick perception and recognition. ”

“ Call the child's attention to the things missed so that he sees the reason for making an additional effort. The same exercise can be followed with any object, a tree, an automobile, or an animal. When in the house use a picture on the wall, a table, a book case or a coin. You will find that the longer the child looks at the object the more detail he will see. The aim is to get him to notice and mention the details as quickly as possible. After some practice he will be able to mention them as rapidly as he can speak. This can be made into a competitive game when there are several children. ”

“ At the end of that time there must come consciously or unconsciously, a period of relaxation.
William James, the psychologist, says that "doing work which requires concentration is like driving a hungry horse along a road lined on both sides with green grass. If left to himself the horse will stop to nibble. It is only by continual jerking and urging that he can be kept moving forward." ”

“ Let the movement of the conscious attention be more rapid if necessary to hold it fixed upon the picture.
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Practice with the pictures on the wall and direct your attention from one detail to another, always changing before the attention wanders, keeping it absolutely under your control.
Attention to be perfect must be directed to one thing at a time. It must be centered and not scattered. Perfect attention is a rifle, not a shotgun. You can best stimulate attention by use of one sense at a time. At the same time see to it that the other senses are relaxed and at rest. ”

“ Parents who procrastinate or delay correcting wrong tendencies and instilling right ones because "the child is too young to know better," or "it's too soon to train him yet," will awaken to find that they have formed a wrong habit and that the child will soon be trying to train and rule them.
There is no method of child training as helpful as that of Suggestion. Inducing the child by directly spoken words to think and believe that he is, and that he does, what you wish him to be and to do. ”

“ Necessity and Desire are the parents of all progress and development.
You [Pg 14] will notice that in all of these cases there are these two impelling motives which have caused this great improvement. Create in the child the desire to be unusual in this regard. Show him that the highest success of life necessitates this development. Also that in every case it comes as the result of individual effort. The one possessing this unusual capacity acquired it only as the result of his own continued practice. The senses cannot be developed in a day. ”

“ The parent should have the definite aim in mind of increasing the child's stock of knowledge, and of the later value of these efforts. Show him everything you can, and take time to explain. Things are new to the child, even though they are very common to you. This is the age when he acquires his knowledge of things without being so much interested in their relationship to each other. ”

“ This sense has been endowed by nature with special ability and capacity. The nerves connecting the eye with the brain are eighteen times larger than those of any other sense. Their capacity to impress the brain is therefore many times greater. At the same time nature has duplicated the sense of sight and we have the mind's eye, or the faculty of visualization, by which we can reproduce the visual impression, or picture, of the thing which we have seen. This faculty is one of the important foundations of memory development as you will see in future chapters. ”

“ There are certain simple regulations of health that are of vital importance to the life success of every one and the parent should attend to their becoming habits while the child is small.
Mental efficiency and accuracy are quickly influenced by bodily conditions. Poor health or physical inability are never accompanied with 100% mental efficiency. You may at once think of some examples of men of high mental caliber who were deficient and handicapped by physical disability. ”

“ To correct a habit it will be necessary for you to suggest a new method and see to it that it is repeated a sufficient number of times to become the stronger tendency. No habit is or can be formed without the element of repetition.
Realizing that children are forming habits which will follow them through life should suggest to the parent the importance of consciously guiding the child in their formation. ”

“ The possibilities of the use of suggestions in child training are limitless. There are many cases where miraculous results have been secured by intelligent, devoted mothers.
In the matter of health and overcoming of detrimental habits there is no greater power than that of positive Suggestion intelligently used. Every up-to-date and thoroughly progressive physician realizes the power of the positive thought over the human body. ”

“ Even in the simple exercises for the development of the senses you have been continuously required to draw upon the child's imagination. Most children are blessed with a vivid, active imagination and use it continuously in their play and self-entertainment. The reason that this wonderful faculty is so useless to the average adult is largely caused by a misunderstanding of the faculty on the part of the parent and perhaps the teacher. ”

“ The rapidity of visualization can be greatly increased by effort and training. There is great value in this ability, and it can be attained by shortening the interval during which the object or exercise is visible to the eye.
After the children have learned to form a definite, accurate picture, try to shorten the time in which they see the objects. Strive until they can take in the whole at a glance. The detail will continue to develop after the eyes are closed. In the Letter and Number Games gradually shorten the time given until they can reproduce the entire row at a glance. ”

“ The chief factor in observation and in acquiring knowledge is Attention and Concentration. These can be produced by curiosity and the desire to excel, which is found in the love of competition and the game spirit. A good example of concentration is found in the juggler or acrobat on the vaudeville stage or in the circus. The ability to concentrate will grow with the doing of the exercises and playing games such as are mentioned here.
Any exercises or games which will result in improved ability to concentrate and pay attention are valuable. ”

“ The ability to accurately measure with the eye is a thing that a great many people find very difficult, if not almost impossible. You are continuously finding opportunity to use such an ability. A little conscious effort will work wonders in this regard and children should not be allowed to grow up without being trained to intelligently estimate measurements. In this training begin with larger measurements and from that work to the finer ones as rapidly as the child can progress. ”

“ Some have held the notion that imagination is a faculty useful only to actors, artists or poets. This is untrue. Some parents have discouraged and even killed the imaginative faculty in their children, because they did not wish them to follow either of the above professions.
Your child will be the greatest credit and satisfaction to you if he becomes that for which his natural endowment and inclination is strongest. It is a great mistake for parents to drive a child to grow up according to some previously conceived plan or professional choice of their own. ”