Chapter 8 & 9

R2

In the chapter Laws of Habit James discusses what teachers should encourage students to do in terms of the formation of habit. He emphasized that habits are part of our make-up and that the nervous system is what we use in the acquisition of the things that we deem as positive or advantageous to automaticity. My question here is if this is what we aspire to, where does creativity play into this picture?

James stated in the text, " Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. It is not in the moment of their forming but in the moment of their producing motor effects that resolve and aspiration communicate the new set to the brain." (p. 35) Runco & Pritzker (1999) listed habit as a barrier to creativity. Creativity it would seem to me is spontaneity of the individual. When we make an act a habit then we can no longer look at it as creative. I guess it would only be creative in the stage in which according to James prompts a "motor effect."

The mention of association of ideas to that which is native or acquired bring to mind the thought of teaching students in ways that they can associate the information to real life situations. James in Chapter 7 explained that teachers should vary their association of ideas when they instruct students. He also stated that teachers should also vary the way that they pose questions to students. This is very interesting to me simply because it connects with the notion of teaching so that it connects to real life situations. In this instance the connections of ideas has to change because the real life situation of students also varies.

The connection of ideas can be difficult for students with Specific Learning Disabilities in the area of writing. These individual typically have difficulties with formulating ideas in written work. The association of these ideas to a creative sample of work for these individuals is not an easy task.