An Introduction to the Study of the Mind

A short, plain primer on how the mind works, written in 1921 for Sunday school teachers who had never opened a psychology textbook and wanted one they could finish in an evening.

Walter Scott Athearn (1872 - 1934) was an American educationist who built the graduate School of Religious Education and Social Service at Boston University, and who argued all his working life that church teaching should be held to the same standard as any other classroom. An Introduction to the Study of the Mind came from The Westminster Press in 1921 as Section Three of his teacher-training course, Teaching the Teacher. Ten brief chapters work through the intellect, the emotions, and the will, then turn to habit formation, how to study, and the child who is still growing.

Athearn writes in the terms of his day - the body as a machine with a machinist at the controls, the 'triune man' of body, mind, and spirit - and his aim is always practical: a teacher who grasps how attention and feeling develop will teach better. Read now, it is a clear view of what an ordinary American teacher a century ago was told about the human mind.

This edition features:

• The complete text in ten chapters, from 'What Is the Mind?' to 'Workers with Immortal Souls'
• Issued by The Westminster Press as Section Three of Athearn's teacher-training course Teaching the Teacher
• A plain account of the intellect, the emotions, and the will as they were taught a century ago
• Practical chapters on habit formation, how to study, and the stages by which a young mind takes shape
• An accessible way in for readers interested in early twentieth-century ideas about teaching