Education Is the Formation of Habits

"The formation of habits is education, and education is the formation of habits." — Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 97

Researchers have found that at least half of what we do each day is driven by habit.^1^ This becomes evident when we consider how many actions we perform automatically—how we brush our teeth, get into the car, or make our morning coffee. These routines require little conscious thought.

Habits extend far beyond the mundane. Habits of the heart are revealed in how we respond when our spouse disagrees with us, in the tone of voice we use when our children disappoint us, or in the expressions on our faces during moments of frustration. These responses, too, are habitual.

Habits and the Formation of Character

Charlotte Mason was remarkably ahead of her time in recognizing the formative power of habits in a child's life. She wrote:

"…whether you choose or not to take any trouble about the formation of habits, it is habit, all the same, which will govern ninety-nine one-hundredths of the child's life."^2^

Throughout her writings, Mason insists that parents and teachers must be intentional in forming good habits, because:

"…it is unchangeably true that the child who is not being constantly raised to a higher and a higher platform will sink to a lower and a lower."^3^

Mason believed that character is largely shaped by habit. In her view, three habits stand above all others in importance: attention, obedience, and truthfulness. Of these, attention is paramount.

"It is impossible to overstate the importance of this habit of attention."^4^

Scripture repeatedly exhorts us to pay attention, and perhaps this is because so much of life depends upon it. Our ability to obey, recognize mistakes, achieve goals, and relate well to others hinges on our capacity for sustained attention. We cannot do anything well if we cannot attend to it fully.

The Rails of Habit

One of Mason's most vivid illustrations of habit formation is her analogy of the locomotive:

"…just as it is on the whole easier for the locomotive to pursue its way on the rails than to take a disastrous run off them, so it is easier for the child to follow lines of habit carefully laid down than to run off these lines at his peril."^5^

She continues by emphasizing the responsibility this places on parents:

"This business of laying down lines towards the unexplored country of the child's future is a very serious and responsible one… It rests with [the parent] to consider well the tracks over which the child should travel with profit and pleasure; and along these tracks, to lay down lines so invitingly smooth and easy that the little traveller is going upon them at full speed without stopping to consider whether or not he chooses to go that way."^5^

Habit training, then, is not about control or coercion. It is about intentionally laying down rails that make goodness easier to choose and disorder harder to follow.

A Question for Reflection

What habits—either in yourself or in your children—would you like to begin cultivating more intentionally?

Sources

1. Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit, p. xvii
2. Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 110
3. Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 103
4. Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 146
5. Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 109