Activity 6.3 William's Will

I really enjoyed the chapter on the will. I was interested by one point James brings up; he provides an insight into the idea of the teacher's will superseding the will of the student's, thus "breaking" the student's will. He says instead of breaking a child's will (I'm assuming he means corporeally), that a teacher must give the child a brief hiatus from the subject and then resume the task later (110-11). My question is, would James ever endorse the "breaking of someone's will"? (I hate that phrase - its so animalistic).

Also, a brief fun fact: the John Wesley that James quotes in this section on 'the balky will' is the same man who founded the Methodist Church (110). Since I was raised in the Methodist Church, it was an interesting connection for me. Though Wesley meant well with his fervent call to will-breaking, it does make me feel a little grateful that I survived my childhood with my will intact. My parents took an approach similar to the one James advocates: when I simply could NOT grasp a concept or task, instead of making sure that their will dominated mine, they decided to distract me with another task. When I was ready to tackle the formerly difficult task again, I was more capable because of the way my parents handled the situation. For example, when I was young, I could not understand the differences between all the various cleaning products. I would use glass cleaner to polish wood and such. Instead of punishing me for continually getting the products mixed up, they gave me a new task; I was appointed to sweeping and mopping patrol. Eventually, I got the hang of all the products but it came much easier than if I had been punished and forced to continually try to understand.

I was also interested in the passage in which James describes the "expulsive power of higher emotion" (106).

He writes, "Fear arrests appetite, maternal love annuls fear, respect checks sensuality, and the like; and in the more subtle manifestations of the moral life, whenever an ideal stirring is suddenly quickened into intensity, it is as if the whole scale of values of our motives changed its equilibrium. The force of old temperatures vanishes, and what a moment ago was impossible is now not only possible, but easy, because of their inhibition," (106). I would be interested in discussing this "power of higher emotion" in class.

I have found an example of this effect in yet another youtube clip:

Yes, I'm bring Pride and Prejudice into the conversation. In this clip, Mr. Darcy proclaims that his sudden passionate feelings for Elizabeth Bennett trumps all of his previously valid reasons for denying his emotions. Because of the gravity of his feelings, his former inhibitions fall away "and what a moment ago was impossible is not only possible, but easy".