Habit

There are two important elements that are indispensable in a child's acquisition of any habit, namely:

1 – That the muscles necessary for the habit be ready for training: for example, the muscles of the palate for speech, the muscles of the legs for walking, and so forth.

2 – That the nervous system be prepared to receive this training.

I still remember a story a friend of mine went through when she was eleven years old and ignorant of the principles of child-rearing. She took special pains to teach her name to her little brother, then six months old, but her efforts ended in failure; yet no sooner had her brother reached one year of age than her name ran off his tongue without any effort on her part. Thus I became certain that a child cannot acquire a given habit until the nervous system entrusted with acquiring that habit is fully developed.

Those who keep company with the child — family, friends, and others — have the greatest influence upon him. The simplest way to teach a child the habit of truthfulness, for example, is for those who keep company with him to be truthful with him; and no companionship has a stronger effect on the child than that of his parents. On them depends his learning of sound and desirable habits, and on them rests the responsibility of casting off undesirable ones.

The child comes to know the world through his parents. If he sees that his parents follow a policy of lying in their lives, for example, lying becomes for him a natural condition, and this ugly habit grows along with his mental and physical growth. Parents must therefore be a good example to their children.