8: Laws of Habit

In this chapter, James discusses good and bad habits.  He believes the aim of education is to make useful habits automatic.  James also lists 5 maxims relative to habit-forming:  1) Strong initiative,  2)  No exception, 3)  Seize first opportunity to act, 4)  Don’t preach, and  5) Keep the faculty of effort trained.

Before I discuss James’ talk under the educational context, there is a relationship between one James’ five maxims and the sport of swimming that is worth mentioning.  “The second maxim is,  Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life” (p. 35).   Due to the repetitive motion of the arms through the water, the most frequent injury to a competitive swimmer occurs in the shoulder.  Many of these injuries can be avoided by using the proper stroke technique which includes hand entry, body position, and timing.   Developing correct stroke technique is the same as developing a good habit.  During practice, swimmers become fatigued, and good habits seem to fall to the wayside.  A swimmer must make the conscious effort to continue to practice the proper technique.   It is important that swimmers use good stroke technique,  not only to avoid injury, but it will enable the swimmer to swim faster.  The moral of the story is when swimmers become tired, they need to be mindful and not allow their stroke techniques to ‘suffer an execption’. Further, once the correct stroke technique becomes deeply rooted within the swimmer, faster times will be swum. When I read James’ second maxim,  I decided that it could be a good quote on the back of our next team shirt. 

When contemplating habit within the educational realm, my college prep students come to mind.   The students are seniors in high school, and from what I have observed, a majority have extremely poor, if any, study habits at all.  When teaching the college prep students, I often find myself asking, in what way can I help my students develop good study habits?  James answers my question when describing his fourth maxim, don’t preach.  He advocates for teachers to lie “in wait rather for the practical opportunities, be prompt to seize those as they pass…” (p. 36).   I do my best instill good study habits to my students by way of course design and instruction.  I also try to live by example through my own schooling and use that to encourage good habit behavior.  I do not want to engage in a debate on home support, or lack thereof,  and the correlation to good study habits. These seniors are young adults and soon to be on their own. How can teachers instill good study habits so that they transfer to student practice outside of the classroom?

William and I stopped to talk with
our next door neighbor while reading
together on my porch.