ly the most effective, but also the only one that will enable man to
adjust himself to unusual situations. For this reason, and because of
the difference in value of experiences themselves, it is further evident
that man should participate in those experiences which are most
effective in facilitating desired adjustments or in directing right
conduct. It is found, moreover, that this participation can be effected
by bringing the child's experiencing during his early years directly
under control. It is held by some, indeed, that the whole aim of
education is to reconstruct and enrich the experiences of the child and
thereby add to his social efficiency. Although this conception of
education leaves out of view the effects of instinctive and habitual
reaction, it nevertheless covers, as we shall see later, no small part
of the purpose of formal education.

INFLUENCE OF CONSCIOUS REACTION

=A. On Instinctive Action.=--Before concluding our survey of the various
forms of reaction, it may be noted that both instinctive and habitual
action are subject to the influence of conscious reaction. As a child's
early instinctive acts develop into fixed habits, his growing knowledge
aids in making these habits intelligent and effective. Consciousness
evidently aids, for example, in developing the instinctive movements of
the legs into the rhythmic habitual movements of walking, and those of
the hands into the later habits of holding the spoon, knife, cup, etc.
Greater still would be the influence of consciousness in developing the
crude instinct of self-preservation into the habitual reactions of the
spearman or boxer. In general, therefore, instinctive tendencies in man
are subject to intelligent training, and may thereby be moulded into
effective habits of reaction.

=B. On Habitual Action.=--Further new habits may be established and old
ones improved under the direction of conscious reaction. When a child
first learns to represent the number four by the symbol, the problem is
necessarily met at first through a conscious adjustment. In other words,
the child must mentally associate into a single new experience the
number idea and certain ideas of form and of muscular movement.
Although, however, the child is conscious of all of these factors when
he first attempts to give expression to this experience, it is clear
that very soon the expressive act of writing the number is carried on
without any conscious direction of the process.