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indicate that a person is not immediately concerned with subject
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Democracy and Education
133
matter. Something has come between which deflects concern to
side issues. A self-conscious person is partly thinking about
his problem and partly about what others think of his
performances. Diverted energy means loss of power and confusion
of ideas. Taking an attitude is by no means identical with being
conscious of one's attitude. The former is spontaneous, naive,
and simple. It is a sign of whole-souled relationship between a
person and what he is dealing with. The latter is not of
necessity abnormal. It is sometimes the easiest way of
correcting a false method of approach, and of improving the
effectiveness of the means one is employing, -- as golf players,
piano players, public speakers, etc., have occasionally to give
especial attention to their position and movements. But this
need is occasional and temporary. When it is effectual a person
thinks of himself in terms of what is to be done, as one means
among others of the realization of an end -- as in the case of a
tennis player practicing to get the "feel" of a stroke. In
abnormal cases, one thinks of himself not as part of the agencies
of execution, but as a separate object -- as when the player
strikes an attitude thinking of the impression it will make upon
spectators, or is worried because of the impression he fears his
movements give rise to.
Confidence is a good name for what is intended by the term
directness. It should not be confused, however, with
self-confidence which may be a form of self-consciousness--or of
"cheek." Confidence is not a name for what one thinks or feels
about his attitude it is not reflex. It denotes the
straightforwardness with which one goes at what he has to do. It
denotes not conscious trust in the efficacy of one's powers but
unconscious faith in the possibilities of the situation. It
signifies rising to the needs of the situation. We have already
pointed out (See p. 169) the objections to making students
emphatically aware of the fact that they are studying or
learning. Just in the degree in which they are induced by the
conditions to be so aware, they are not studying and learning.
They are in a divided and complicated attitude. Whatever methods
of a teacher call a pupil's attention off from what he has to do
and transfer it to his own attitude towards what he is doing
impair directness of concern and action. Persisted in, the pupil
acquires a permanent tendency to fumble, to gaze about aimlessly,
to look for some clew of action beside that which the subject
matter supplies. Dependence upon extraneous suggestions and
directions, a state of foggy confusion, take the place of that
sureness with which children (and grown-up people who have not
been sophisticated by "education") confront the situations of
life.
2. Open-mindedness. Partiality is, as we have seen, an
accompaniment of the existence of interest, since this means
sharing, partaking, taking sides in some movement. All the more
reason, therefore, for an attitude of mind which actively
welcomes suggestions and relevant information from all sides. In
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Democracy and Education
134
the chapter on Aims it was shown that foreseen ends are factors
in the development of a changing situation. They are the means
by which the direction of action is controlled. They are
subordinate to the situation, therefore, not the situation to
them. They are not ends in the sense of finalities to which
everything must be bent and sacrificed. They are, as foreseen,
means of guiding the development of a situation. A target is not
the future goal of shooting; it is the centering factor in a
present shooting. Openness of mind means accessibility of mind
to any and every consideration that will throw light upon the
situation that needs to be cleared up, and that will help
determine the consequences of acting this way or that.
Efficiency in accomplishing ends which have been settled upon as
unalterable can coexist with a narrowly opened mind. But
intellectual growth means constant expansion of horizons and
consequent formation of new purposes and new responses. These
are impossible without an active disposition to welcome points of
view hitherto alien; an active desire to entertain considerations
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