tly
watched during this practice period, his response may fall much below
the model, or standard, set by the teacher. Take, for instance, the
child's mode of forming a letter. At the outset he is given the correct
forms for _g_ and _m_, but on account of the resistance met in
performing these movements he may, if left without proper supervision,
soon fall into such movements as [symbol] and [symbol]. The chief value
of the Montessori sandpaper letters consists in the fact that they
enable the child to continue a correct movement without variation until
all resistance within the nervous organism has been overcome. Two facts
should, therefore, be kept prominently in view by the teacher concerning
the child's efforts to secure skill. First, the learner's early attempts
must be necessarily crude, both through the resistance at first offered
by the nervous system on account of the proper paths not being laid in
the system, and also through the image of the movement not being clearly
conceived. Secondly, there is constant danger of variations from the
proper standard establishing themselves during this period of
resistance.

VALUE OF HABITS

=Habits Promote Efficiency.=--But notwithstanding the dangers which seem
to attend the formation of habits, it is only through this inevitable
reduction of his more customary acts to unconscious habit that man
attains to proficiency. Only by relieving conscious attention from the
ordinary mechanical processes in any occupation, is the artist able to
attend to the special features of the work. Unless, for instance, the
scholar possesses as an unconscious habit the ability to hold the pen
and form and join the various letters, he could never devote his
attention to evolving the thoughts composing his essay. In like manner,
without an habitual control of the chisel, the carver could not possibly
give an absorbing attention to the delicate outlines of the particular
model. It is only because the rider has habituated himself to the
control of the handles, etc., that he can give his attention to the
street traffic before him and guide the bicycle or automobile through
the ever varying passages. The first condition of efficiency, therefore,
in any pursuit, is to reduce any general movements involved in the
process to unconscious habits, and thus leave the conscious judgment
free to deal with the changeable features of the work.

=Habit Conserves Energy.=--Another advantage of habit is that