The first thing to define is habit. There are many definitions of it, however, let’s use the simplest one: habit is a learned action that eventually becomes a need. For example, a child has mastered some hygiene skills: he can wash his hands or brush his teeth. However, it is not enough. It is necessary for the child to have the habit of always washing his hands before sitting down at the table or brushing his teeth in the morning. Habit makes a person act in a certain way, forms his character and way of life. No wonder there is a proverb that the habit is second nature.
The task of the teacher is not simply educating a correct, rational attitude to questions of behavior, but also the education of correct habits. What is meant by this? It does not means deliberate application of a certain pattern of behavior in a particular situation, but doing unconscious actions, which gradually became an integral part of a person’s character. Skill, as a rule, is formed by conscious efforts in the process of performing exercises. The habit can occur without any effort of the person.
More useful habits in the system of learning
For example, a strict daily routine, repetition of the same actions leads to the fact that a person develops certain habits. In children, such habits often arise due to blind imitation, “copying” of adult behavior. Habits occur in the child in the process of operating objects, as a result of communication with adults or peers, as well as during the expansion of their own horizons. An ancient Indian proverb says: “If you sow an act, you reap a habit, you sow a habit, you reap a character, you sow a character, you reap a destiny.” One way or another, the habits laid down in early age are the most durable, sometimes determining the further behavior of a person. In the process of learning, a tutor can only form habits of his pupils, since there is not enough time for this.
Therefore, it is important that habits are formed by striking examples that are given by the teacher. Today there is one interesting trend associated with the process of education. Often parents who themselves grew up and learned in the times of the Soviet Union try to make the learning process an organic part of the education process. It is not strange. For example, one of the teachers of the time, Ushinsky, had the following thought: “What is most needed is that the servile transmission of the time when a person is left without work in his hands, without a thought in his head, since these minutes spoil mind and morality ”(the quote is dated 1953). In other words, the child’s success in school is directly connected with his morality and moral character traits. The tutor should distinguish these processes in his work.
