'Habit is ten natures.' If that be true, strong as nature is, habit is not only as strong, but tenfold as strong. Here, then, have we a stronger than he, able to overcome this strong man armed.
But habit runs on the lines of nature: the cowardly child habitually lies that he may escape blame; the loving child has a hundred endearing habits; the good-natured child has a habit of giving; the selfish child, a habit of keeping. Habit, working thus according to nature, is simply nature in action, growing strong by exercise. ...
But habit, to be the lever to lift the child, must work contrary to nature, or at any rate, independently of her. (Vol. 1 pg 105)
Or, in other words, things get easier with practice. Virtues, vices, skills; it all gets easier with practice. The more you practice the piano, the easier it gets. The more you practice kindness and gentleness, the easier it gets. On the other hand, the same is true of practicing sloth, idleness, and cruelty.
[I]t rests with parents and teachers to lay down lines of habit on which the life of the child may run henceforth with little jolting or miscarriage, and may advance in the right direction with the minimum of effort. (Vol. 1, pg 107)
As the Good Book says, "Train up a child..."
[W]e are brought face to face with the fact that, whatever seed of thought or feeling you implant in a child––whether through inheritance or by early training––grows, completes itself, and begets after its kind, even as does a corporeal organism. (Vol. 1, pg 108)
Now that is an interesting thought! It seems to me that this is very similar to what Alma was saying when he talked about experimenting on the Word, and planting the seed of faith in our hearts. Charlotte has simply applied the principle to education rather than faith.
And here we have the reason why children should learn dancing, riding, swimming, calisthenics, every form of activity which requires a training of the muscles, at an early age: the fact being, that muscles and joints have not merely to conform themselves to new uses, but to grow to a modified pattern; and this growth and adaptation take place with the greatest facility in early youth. Of course, the man whose muscles have kept the habit of adaptation picks up new games, new muscular exercises, without very great labour. But teach a ploughman to write, and you see the enormous physical difficulty which unaccustomed muscles have in growing to any new sort of effort. Here we see how important it is to keep watch over the habits of enunciation, carriage of the head, and so on, which the child is forming hour by hour. The poke, the stoop, the indistinct utterance, is not a mere trick to be left off at pleasure 'when he is older and knows better,' but is all the time growing into him becoming a part of himself, because it is registered in the very substance of his spinal cord. The part of his nervous system where consciousness resides (the brain) has long ago given a standing order, and such are the complications of the administration, that to recall the order would mean the absolute re-making of the parts concerned. And to correct bad habits of speaking, for instance, it will not be enough for the child to intend to speak plainly and to try to speak plainly; he will not be able, to do so habitually until some degree of new growth has taken place in the organs of voice whilst he is making efforts to form the new habit. (Vol. 1, pg 113-114)
This seems to be yet another reason to get the little ones outside: much more movement and activity happens outside, which will strengthen the growing body in all sorts of different ways that cannot be achieved inside playing quietly. I must get Monkey outside more. Charlotte makes her point about physical activity, but she then uses that point to illustrate the same principle working in mental activity:
What we are less prepared to admit is, that habits which do not appear to be in any sense physical––a flippant habit, a truthful habit, an orderly habit––should also make their mark upon a physical tissue, and that it is to this physical effect the enormous strength of habit is probably due. (Vol. 1, pg 114)
I suppose that today we'd say these things in terms of building new neural paths and that sort of jargon, but the idea is the same no matter what words you use to clothe it. Activities and thoughts repeated become easier and more perfectly executed with practice. And using this principle in our own lives and our children's lives allows us to achieve considerable growth.
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