More than
all, the juvenile minds were, directly and indirectly, drilled to
acquire the habit of paying attention.
The power of paying attention, of concentrating the whole force of the
mind on one object, is a native gift. Those who are endowed with this
gift are the men and women destined for high careers. They command
confidence. They are leaders in great undertakings. Success attends
them, humanly speaking, with certainty. There is, also, the faculty of
taking notice, of becoming consciously aware of the impressions received
by the senses. This faculty man shares with the animals below him in the
scale of being, and, in both man and brute, it is susceptible to
cultivation. Training the faculty of observation develops the habit of
paying attention, and this habit, though less efficient than the inborn
gift, may be so confirmed as to become second nature.
Whatever the community accomplished or failed to accomplish, the Brook
Farm School rendered important service in educational progress by
demonstrating the practicability of cultivating the habit of attention.
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