putterings 449 < 450 > 451 index
wool gathering, mind-wandering, mental sauntering, intellectual puttering, the opposite of
Study Defined. — Study, as we have shown, means more than the mere act of reading. We do not apply the term study to the perusal of the ordinary novel, nor do we speak of reading a text-book. Study is more than reading; it is intensive, thoughtful reading. Study is the use of books for the purpose of mastering a subject or some portion of it. This is the usual school meaning of study. In a larger sense, study is close, persistent attention to any subject of thought; the term study implies earnestness, zeal, diligent effort. No cursory looking over the pages [299] of a book is study. No attempt to merely memorize the sentences and paragraphs of a book is study. No automatic, half-hearted conning a lesson over and over is study. No frivolous trifling with lessons is study. Study is the opposite of wool gathering, mind-wandering, mental sauntering, intellectual puttering. Study is not a social function. White says: “Study is the attentive application of the mind to an object or subject for the purpose of acquiring knowledge of it. Study involves persistent attention, the continued or prolonged holding of the mind to the knowing of an object by acts of the will.” To study is to observe with care, to discover qualities and relations, to compare objects or ideas, to analyze a whole into its parts, to combine ideas into new groups, to classify knowledge; it is investigating with interest, examining with a purpose, inquiring with zeal. Study is the self-effort of the pupil to obtain knowledge. It is the greatest of school arts, for it is the soul searching for truth. In the words of Lessing: “Did the Almighty, holding in his right hand Truth and in his left hand Search after Truth, deign to offer me the one I might prefer, in all humility, but without hesitation, I should choose Search after Truth.”
ex Chapter 20, “The Pupil’s Study of the Lesson,” in Chauncey Peter Colegrove, The Teacher and the School (1910) : 299
Harvard copy/scan (via google books) : link
NYPL copy/scan (among others, at hathitrust) : link
- Chauncey Peter Colegrove (1855-1936), teacher, author, lecturer; president of Upper Iowa University 1916-1921 (history : link);
IndexUNI: Database of University Articles, Colegrove, Chauncey Peter : link
retires to Pasadena, California for his health - entry in Who’s Who Among North American Authors vol 3 (1927-1928) : link
- Chauncey P. Colegrove Papers, University of North Iowa, University Archives : link
- and a most interesting son,
Kenneth Wallace Colegrove (1886-1975)
papers (and biographical note) at Northwesteern University Archives : link - a more substantial biographical treatment at
Kenneth W. Colegrove Papers
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library : linkfrom which —
In a sixty year career as a historian and political scientist, Kenneth Wallace Colegrove was an acknowledged expert on the Far East, serving as General MacArthur’s personal adviser during the occupation of Japan. Colegrove’s father, Chauncey Peter Colegrove, for several years President of Upper Iowa College, was a dedicated Christian scholar and teacher who impressed upon his sons the importance of Christian service in every walk of life.
The fusion of Christian principles and educational idealism is evident in both Kenneth’s first textbook, American Citizens and Their Government (1922), and especially in correspondence with his father about the book. Other letters, written to a variety of associates from 1950 on, suggest that these influences were at the root of his determined opposition to Communism.
several instances of “puttering” in this book, one of them in its index (p403) —
School work — Creative self-activity, 214-215
Defined, 209
More than play, 210-211
Not drudgery, 212-214
Not puttering, 210
Tests of, 215-216
I feel seen, and indicted, having failed every test.
23 July 2024