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Human Resource Management 11Th Edition Rue Solutions Manual Full Chapter PDF
Human Resource Management 11Th Edition Rue Solutions Manual Full Chapter PDF
Human Resource Management 11Th Edition Rue Solutions Manual Full Chapter PDF
CHAPTER 10
Career Development
Chapter Outline
From the organization’s viewpoint, career development has three major objectives:
• To meet the immediate and future human resource needs of the organization on a
timely basis.
• To better inform the organization and the individual about career paths within the
organization.
• To utilize existing human resources programs to the fullest by integrating the
activities that select, assign, develop, and manage individual careers with the
organization’s plans.
©2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-2
Chapter 10 – Career Development
Career planning is the process by which an individual formulates career goals and
develops a plan for reaching those goals.
Successful career development requires actions from three sources: the organization, the
employee, and the employee’s immediate manager.
A. Organization’s Responsibilities
The organization is the entity that has primary responsibility for instigating and
ensuring career development. Specifically, the organization’s responsibilities are to
develop and communicate career options within the organization to its employees. The
organization should promote the conditions and create an environment that will
facilitate the development of individual career plans by employees.
B. Employee’s Responsibilities
The primary responsibility for preparing individual career plans rests with the
individual employees. It requires a conscious effort on the part of the employee. The
organization can help by providing trained specialist to encourage and guide the
employee. This can best be accomplished by allotting a few hours of company time
each quarter to this type of planning.
C. Manager’s Responsibilities
Although not expected to be a professional counselor, the managers can and should
play a key role in facilitating the development of a subordinate’s career. First and
foremost, the manager should serve as a catalyst and sounding board. The manager
should show an employee how to go about the process and then help the employee
evaluate the conclusions. Table 10.1 lists several roles a manager might perform to
assist subordinates in developing their careers.
A. Individual Assessment
Once an individual has a grasp of his or her interests and abilities, it is very helpful to
develop a personal vision statement. A vision statement can help an individual track
and avoid events that don’t positively relate to his or her career. Effective vision
statements are concise (not more than one or two sentences) and are stated in
measurable terms.
Organizations have several potential sources of information that can be used for
assessing employees. Traditionally, the most frequently used source has been the
performance appraisal process. The assessment center can also be an excellent source
of information. Other potential sources include personnel records reflecting
information such as education and previous work experience. The organization’s
assessment of an individual employee should normally be conducted jointly by human
resource personnel and the individual’s immediate manager.
To set realistic career goals, an individual must know the options and opportunities
options and opportunities that are available. Posting on organization’s intranet and
advertising job vacancies is one activity that helps employees get a feel for their
options. Clearly identifying possible paths of advancement within the organization is
also helpful. Another good idea is to share human resource planning forecasts with
employees.
D. Career Pathing
Career pathing is a technique that addresses the specifics of progressing from one job
to another in the organization. It can be defined as a sequence of developmental
activities involving informal and formal education, training, and job experiences that
help make an individual capable of holding more advanced jobs. Table 10.2 outlines
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-4
Chapter 10 – Career Development
E. Career Self-Management
Career self-management is “the ability to keep pace with the speed at which change
occurs within the organization and the industry and to prepare for the future.” The
basic concept of career self-management is for employees to take the responsibility for
managing their own development.
F. Career Counseling
Career counseling is the activity that integrates the different steps in the career-
development process. It is preferable to have the immediate manager conduct
counseling with appropriate input from human resource personnel. Following are
some specific suggestions for helping managers in improving career counseling skills:
• Recognize limits of career counseling
• Respect confidentiality
• Establish a relationship
• Listen effectively
• Consider alternatives
• Seek and share information
• Assist with goal definition and planning
If an individual periodically reviews both the career plan and situation, he or she can
make adjustments so that career development is not impaired. A career plan that is not
kept current rapidly becomes useless. Complacency is the greatest danger once a career
plan has been developed. The plan must be updated as the circumstances and the
individual change.
V. Career-Related Myths
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10-5
Chapter 10 – Career Development
A career plateau has been defined as “the point in a career where the likelihood of
additional hierarchical promotion is very low.” Career plateauing takes place when an
employee reaches a position from which he or she is not likely to be promoted further.
Certain factors in today’s work environment help explain why plateauing may become
more prevalent. The fact that employers are now depending more on older employees
may well cause plateauing problems. Also, today’s employees are generally educated and
thus enter organizations at higher positions. A third factor is that fewer promotions occur
during recessionary periods.
Table 10.3 presents a model for classifying careers. The Four principal career categories
include:
• Learners—individuals with high potential for advancement who are performing
below standards.
• Stars—individuals presently doing outstanding work and having a full potential for
continued advancement; these people are on fast-track career paths.
• Solid citizens—individuals whose present performance is satisfactory but whose
chance for future advancement is small.
• Deadwood—individuals whose present performance has fallen to an unsatisfactory
level; they have little potential for advancement.
The idea of a career lattice is to think of employees moving at any angle, heading from
side to side, supporting organizational goals while getting their career goals met at the
same time. Career lattices support career moves in all directions, not just up or down,
within an organization. Table 10.4 presents some examples of traditional ladder thinking
compared to lattice thinking.
To facilitate the progression from a ladder to a lattice culture, Deloitte & Touche
designed a framework called mass career customization (MCC). The goal of MCC is to
align current and future career development options for the employee with current and
future requirements for the organization in ways sustainable for both.
The MCC framework outlines a definite set of options along each of four core career
dimensions:
• Pace
• Workload
• Location/schedule
• Role
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10-7
Chapter 10 – Career Development
A major benefit of MCC is that it allows employees to modify their activities along the
four dimensions as their personal and career situations evolve.
The biggest advantages for dual-employed couples are increased income, followed by
psychological benefits as a distant second. Potential problems of dual-employed couples
include the need for child care, balancing time schedules, and emotional stresses.
IX. Outplacement
The term glass ceiling refers to invisible, yet real or perceived, barriers found in many
organizational structures that appear to stymie the executive advancement opportunities
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-8
Chapter 10 – Career Development
The Glass Ceiling Commission was created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The
mandate of the commission was to focus greater public attention on the importance of
eliminating barriers and to promote workforce diversity. According to the commission’s
initial report, the three most common practices that may contribute to this condition are:
• Word-of-mouth recruiting
• Inadequate access to developmental opportunities for women and minorities
• A lack of responsibility among senior management for equal employment
opportunity efforts.
The Glass Ceiling Commission, “which was dissolved in 1995” formulated the following
suggestions for toppling job-advancement barriers:
• Demonstrate commitment.
• Hold line managers accountable for progress by including diversity in all strategic
business plans.
• Use affirmative action as a tool to ensure that all qualified individuals compete
based on ability and merit.
• Expand your pool of candidates.
• Educate all employees about the strengths and challenges of gender, racial, ethnic,
and cultural differences.
• Initiate family-friendly programs that help men and women balance their work and
family responsibilities.
Online career development centers provide access to a wide variety of services to help
employees manage their careers and, in some instances, even find jobs outside their
present company. Some of the online career planning resources being offered include:
• Information about employment trends and job opportunities.
• Self-assessment tools, such as personality tests and interest indicators, that
employees can use to determine which types of jobs they might best pursue.
• Links to online employment resources such as job listings and career development
information.
• Individual online job counseling, including advice on preparing for interviews.
Resources available on the Internet to help individuals with career development include:
• Career counseling
• Job search guides
• Self-assessment tools
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-9
Chapter 10 – Career Development
A. Life preparedness
As related to career development, Robert Lent has defined the term life preparedness
as “a healthy state of vigilance regarding threats to one’s career well-being as well as
alertness to resources and opportunities on which one can capitalize.” The theory
behind life preparedness is to use proactive strategies to manage barriers, build
supports, and otherwise advocate for one’s own career-life future.
• Career pathing: A technique that addresses the specifics of progressing from one
job to another in an organization.
• Career self-management: The ability to keep up with the changes that occur
within the organization and industry and to prepare for the future.
• Dual-earner couples: Couples in which one or both members defines his or her
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-10
Chapter 10 – Career Development
• Stars: Individuals in an organization who are presently doing outstanding work and
have a high potential for continued advancement.
2. What are the three major objectives of career development from the organization’s
viewpoint?
From the organization’s viewpoint, career development has three major objectives:
• To meet the immediate and future human resource needs of the organization
on a timely basis.
• To better inform the organization and the individual about potential career
paths within the organization.
• To utilize existing human resources programs to the fullest by integrating the
activities that select, assign, develop, and manage individual careers with the
organization’s plans.
©2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-11
Chapter 10 – Career Development
An individual should formulate career goals and develop a plan for reaching those
goals. This is called career planning. Realistic career planning forces individuals to
look at opportunities in relation to their abilities. A good career path identifies
certain milestones; when these milestones are reached, the employee will
experience the satisfaction of achievement and continued motivation.
4. What are the four basic steps in implementing a career development program?
7. Give some specific suggestions for helping managers become better career
counselors.
The following are suggestions for managers in improving career counseling skills:
• Recognize limits of career counseling
• Respect confidentiality
• Establish a relationship with subordinate
• Listen effectively
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-12
Chapter 10 – Career Development
• Consider alternatives
• Seek and share information
• Assist with goal definition and planning
8. How often should an individual review and revise his or her career plan?
With the organization’s help, employees may be encouraged to devote a few hours
of company time each quarter to career planning. It must be realized that a
conscious effort is required to develop and sustain such a plan.
9. Identify several myths employees often hold relating to career development and
advancement.
10. Identify several myths managers often hold relating to career development.
11. Define the following categories: learners, stars, solid citizens, and deadwood.
Learners are individuals with high potential for advancement who are performing
below standards.
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
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10-13
Chapter 10 – Career Development
Stars are individuals currently doing outstanding work and having a full potential
for continued advancement.
Solid citizens are individuals whose present performance is satisfactory but whose
chance for future advancement is small.
12. Name and briefly describe several methods an organization might use to
rehabilitate inefficient plateauees.
The idea of a career lattice is to think of employees moving at any angle, heading
from side to side, supporting organizational goals while getting their career goals
met at the same time. Career lattices support moves in all directions, not just up or
down.
14. Distinguish between dual-career couples and dual-earner couples and identify some
of the challenges these groups face.
In the case of dual-earner couples, one of the partners would not regard
employment as integral to their self-definition; for that partner, the employment
would relate mainly to utility of the rewards or the job itself. With dual-career
couples, a high commitment and personal association with the work accompanies
both individuals—not just one of them. Some of the biggest challenges for dual-
employed couples are a lack of time followed by the difficulties in balancing
personal and professional life. Other potential problems of dual-employed couples
include the need for child care, balancing time schedules, and emotional stresses.
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-14
Chapter 10 – Career Development
Outplacement helps a terminated employee find a new job with another company.
The organization gains by terminating employees before they become deadwood.
The employees gain professional assistance in finding a new job that is better suited
to their needs. Outplacement can have a very positive effect on employee morale.
16. What is the glass ceiling and what are the three most common practices that
contribute to it?
The term glass ceiling refers to an invisible, yet real or perceived, barriers found in
many organizational structures that appear to stymie the executive advancement
opportunities for women and minorities. The three most common practices that
may contribute to this condition are:
• Word-of-mouth recruiting
• Inadequate access to developmental opportunities for women and minorities
• Lack of responsibility among senior management for equal employment
opportunity efforts.
17. Name several types of online career planning resources currently available.
There is no doubt that individuals with either considerable talent, multiple interests,
or high motivation will sometimes leave an organization in pursuit of what they
perceive to be more appropriate opportunities or challenges. This phenomenon,
however, should not discourage managerial pursuit of career development for their
firms. The opportunity costs of avoiding such development are likely to be far
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-15
Chapter 10 – Career Development
greater than the consequences of losing some good people. Also, it is likely that
such people are less likely to be initially attracted to a firm that lacks adequate
career development.
In a rapidly changing environment, one could argue that career development is even
more essential than amid less dynamic conditions. Individuals are aware of the
propensity to become marginalized if they do not keep up with the industry as well
as the present firm competing within that industry. Employers realize that they must
maximize their human resource strengths, and scan the environment for
opportunities to exploit with the readied workforce they have developed.
3. Discuss how career-related myths can inhibit career planning and growth.
Several of the myths seem to suggest that an employee is safe in a rut as opposed to
being proactive in career planning. Other myths attempt to rationalize those
misconceptions by suggesting that a person can effectively bail out, and that the
alternative path will always be more attractive. However, this reasoning is flawed
because it largely omits the preparation efforts needed for individuals to meet
potential opportunities.
4. Is it better to tell a person that he or she has reached a plateau in the organization or
to allow the person to maintain hope of eventual promotion?
Career goals are subject to individual aspirations. For that reason, managers need to
encourage employees to formulate career plans as a basis for performance and
progression comparison. In such circumstances, the necessary prompting of an
employee regarding an apparent plateau situation is much more meaningful as
constructive and developmental feedback. This will allow the employee to
recognize and address the problem, and will lead him to perceive his employer as
being interested in and concerned about his career growth.
5. What advice would you offer today’s employees regarding the problems dual-
employed couples and single-parent employees face?
The partners need to make sure that both understand the other’s views and feelings
concerning work and career. They need to prioritize their objectives in short and
long-term modes, and assess whether their efforts and plans are sufficiently moving
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-16
Chapter 10 – Career Development
them in the proper consensual direction. Hopefully, such a process would prevent
one member of the couple from perceiving a role of inordinate self-sacrifice. As
with dual-employed couples, single-parent employees have needs and requirements
that are different from those of families that have one parent at home. Many
organizations have responded to these needs by initiating family-friendly policies
and programs. Proactive corporate programs include child and elder care, flexible
work scheduling, job sharing, part-time work, telecommuting, parental leave, and
personal time.
6. Do you believe that the concept of life preparedness can actually be practiced?
Why or why not?
Incident Responses
Students’ answers may vary. John should be made aware of numerous continuing
education options that do not necessarily demand pursuit of a four-year college
degree. After establishing what he wants to do with his career, he should establish
personal goals and objectives based on personal aspirations and values.
Subsequently, a beneficial career plan can be developed.
Most of the students may say that a career plan would definitely help a person like
John. As a solid performer in his job, John exhibits potential for taking on
responsibilities outside a narrow range. Being well-suited for his current job does
not exclude prospects for enrichment within that job and related ones. It is very
easy to become stagnant in a job without realizing what is happening. Having
career goals would greatly help John avoid getting bogged down in his present job.
A career plan leads one to think futuristically toward goal accomplishment.
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distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
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10-17
Chapter 10 – Career Development
1. Should XYZ find (or “create”) a job for Mike to retain Sally, a valued and well-
trained employee?
This is a question being faced by increasing numbers of firms. The fact that Sally is
allowing Mike’s career aspirations to take precedence may signal trouble with such
a decision. This could mean that either Mike or Sally—not just Sally—may have
been attracted to XYZ, with the resulting loss of both.
It seems that this was taken into proper consideration, as evidenced by XYZ’s role
in finding an initial job in the locality for Mike. Retention problems are always
something that may happen with dual-career couples, and the problem has become
increasingly common. Organizations must realize this while doing what they can to
hold on to their valued employees. Again, the situation with Sally could have
happened even if she and Mike were both working for XYZ.
3. Do situations such as the one presented here make companies cautious about
offering positions to members of dual-career families?
Such situations are increasingly regarded as likely risks that have to be taken into
account. Dual-career couples are much more common now than in previous
generations. Organizations can simply be aware of the potential situations and be as
best prepared as possible to deal with them.
Exercises
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10-18
Chapter 10 – Career Development
This activity is associated with Exercise 10.2. At this stage, students are to simply rate
themselves on the 10 statements regarding career counseling. Instructors may wish to
distribute the questionnaire as a handout with books set aside so as not to have
participants become unduly influenced by the scoring information (which appears
prominently on the same page).
In field testing this exercise among 70 participating students, it was found that
approximately three-fourths of the 23 students who ranked counseling within the top four
of their managerial development roles (Table 10.1) scored above 60 (counselor material
or higher) in the activity’s questionnaire. The scoring of remaining students—those
ranking counseling fifth or lower within Table 10.1—showed that about two-fifths scored
above 60 on the questionnaire. While results of other groups will differ, similarly
correlated tendencies would not be unexpected. Instructors may wish to vary the
procedure (e.g. separating versus linking the two information panels; or changing the
order of consideration) to gain a better sense of relevancy from the results.
In utilizing this activity, the instructor should determine whether to designate it as (a)
strictly optional; (b) extra credit; or (c) required-materials related per course syllabus—
due to the individual cost of either the Self-Directed Search or the Career Key™ Test.
Due to the nature of the question students’ answers may vary, however students should
select a website that will help them formulate career goals and develop a plan for
reaching those goals.
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CHAPTER VI
ABILITY
“Be sure you call at Mrs. Milner’s, Fred, for the address of her
laundress.”
“All right, mother!” And Fred was half-way down the path before
his mother had time to add a second injunction. A second? Nay, a
seventh, for this was already the sixth time of asking; and Mrs.
Bruce’s half-troubled expression showed she placed little faith in her
son’s “All right.”
“I don’t know what to do with Fred, doctor; I am not in the least
sure he will do my message. Indeed, to speak honestly, I am sure he
will not. This is a trifling matter; but when the same thing happens
twenty times a day—when his rule is to forget everything he is
desired to remember—it makes us anxious about the boy’s future.”
Dr. Maclehose drummed meditatively on the table, and put his lips
into form for a whistle. This remark of Mrs. Bruce’s was “nuts” to him.
He had assisted, professionally, at the appearance of the nine young
Bruces, and the family had no more esteemed friend and general
confidant. For his part, he liked the Bruces. Who could help it? The
parents intelligent and genial, the young folk well looking, well grown,
and open-hearted, they were just the family to make friends. All the
same, the doctor found in the Bruces occasion to mount his pet
hobby:—“My Utopia is the land where the family doctor has leave to
play schoolmaster to the parents. To think of a fine brood like the
young Bruces running to waste in half-a-dozen different ways
through the invincible ignorance of father and mother! Nice people,
too!”
For seventeen years Dr. Maclehose had been deep in the family
counsels, yet never till now had he seen the way to put in his oar
anent any question of bringing up the children. Wherefore he
drummed on the table, and pondered:—“Fair and softly, my good
fellow; fair and softly! Make a mess of it now, and it’s my last chance;
hit the nail on the head, and, who knows?”
“Does the same sort of thing go on about his school work?”
“Precisely; he is always in arrears. He has forgotten to take a
book, or to write an exercise, or learn a lesson; in fact, his school life
is a record of forgets and penalties.”
“Worse than that Dean of Canterbury, whose wife would make
him keep account of his expenditure; and thus stood the entries for
one week:—‘Gloves, 5s.; Forgets, £4, 15s.’ His writing was none too
legible, so his wife, looking over his shoulder, cried, ‘Faggots!
Faggots! What in the world! Have you been buying wood?’ ‘No, my
dear; those are forgets;’—his wife gave it up.”
“A capital story; but what is amusing in a Dean won’t help a boy to
get through the world, and we are both uneasy about Fred.”
“He is one of the ‘Boys’ Eleven,’ isn’t he?”
“Oh, yes, and is wild about it: and there, I grant you, he never
forgets. It’s, ‘Mother, get cook to give us an early dinner: we must be
on the field by two!’ ‘Don’t forget to have my flannels clean for Friday,
will you mumsy?’ he knows when to coax. ‘Subscription is due on
Thursday, mother!’ and this, every day till he gets the money.”
“I congratulate you, my dear friend, there’s nothing seriously
amiss with the boy’s brain.”
“Good heavens, doctor! Whoever thought there was? You take my
breath away!”
“Well, well, I didn’t mean to frighten you, but, don’t you see, it
comes to this: either it’s a case of chronic disease, open only to
medical treatment, if to any; or it is just a case of defective
education, a piece of mischief bred of allowance which his parents
cannot too soon set themselves to cure.”
Mrs. Bruce was the least in the world nettled at this serious view
of the case. It was one thing for her to write down hard things of her
eldest boy, the pride of her heart, but a different matter for another to
take her au sérieux.
“But, my dear doctor, are you not taking a common fault of youth
too seriously? It’s tiresome that he should forget so, but give him a
year or two, and he will grow out of it, you’ll see. Time will steady
him. It’s just the volatility of youth, and for my part I don’t like to see a
boy with a man’s head on his shoulders.” The doctor resumed his
drumming on the table. He had put his foot in it already, and
confounded his own foolhardiness.
“Well, I daresay you are right in allowing something on the score
of youthful volatility; but we old doctors, whose business it is to study
the close connection between mind and matter, see our way to only
one conclusion, that any failing of mind or body, left to itself, can do
no other than strengthen.”
“Have another cup of tea, doctor? I am not sure that I understand.
I know nothing about science. You mean that Fred will become more
forgetful and less dependable the older he gets?”
“I don’t know that I should have ventured to put it so baldly, but
that’s about the fact. But, of course, circumstances may give him a
bent in the other direction, and Fred may develop into such a careful
old sobersides that his mother will be ashamed of him.”
“Don’t laugh at me, doctor; you make the whole thing too serious
for a laughing matter.” To which there was no answer, and there was
silence in the room for the space of fully three minutes, while the two
pondered.
“You say,” in an imperious tone, “that ‘a fault left to itself must
strengthen.’ What are we to do? His father and I wish, at any rate, to
do our duty.” Her ruffled maternal plumage notwithstanding, Mrs.
Bruce was in earnest, all her wits on the alert. “Come, I’ve scored
one!” thought the doctor; and then, with respectful gravity, which
should soothe any woman’s amour propre,
“You ask a question not quite easy to answer. But allow me, first,
to try and make the principle plain to you: that done, the question of
what to do settles itself. Fred never forgets his cricket or other
pleasure engagements? No? And why not? Because his interest is
excited; therefore his whole attention is fixed on the fact to be
remembered. Now, as a matter of fact, what you have regarded with
full attention, it is next to impossible to forget. First get Fred to fix his
attention on the matter in hand, and you may be sure he won’t forget
it.”
“That may be very true; but how can I make a message to Mrs.
Milner as interesting to him as the affairs of his club?”
“Ah! There you have me. Had you begun with Fred at a year old
the thing would have settled itself. The habit would have been
formed.”
To the rescue, Mrs. Bruce’s woman’s wit:—“I see; he must have
the habit of paying attention, so that he will naturally take heed to
what he is told, whether he cares about the matter or not.”
“My dear madam, you’ve hit it; all except the word ‘naturally.’ At
present Fred is in a delightful state of nature in this and a few other
respects. But the educational use of habit is to correct nature. If
parents would only see this fact, the world would become a huge
reformatory, and the next generation, or, at any rate, the third, would
dwell in the kingdom of heaven as a regular thing, and not by fits and
starts, and here and there, which is the best that happens to us.”
“I’m not sure I see what you mean; but,” said this persistent
woman, “to return to this habit of attention which is to reform my Fred
—do try and tell me what to do. You gentlemen are so fond of going
off into general principles, while we poor women can grasp no more
than a practical hint or two to go on with. My boy would be cut up to
know how little his fast friend, the doctor, thinks of him!”
“‘Poor women,’ truly! and already you have thrown me with two
staggering buffets. My theories have no practical outcome, and, I
think little of Fred, who has been my choice chum ever since he left
off draperies! It remains for the vanquished to ‘behave pretty.’ Pray,
ma’am, what would you like me to say next?”
“To ‘habit,’ doctor, to ‘habit’; and don’t talk nonsense while the
precious time is going. We’ll suppose that Fred is just twelve months
old to-day. Now, if you please, tell me how I’m to make him begin to
pay attention. And, by the way, why in the world didn’t you talk to me
about it when the child really was young?”
“I don’t remember that you asked me; and who would be pert
enough to think of schooling a young mother? Not I, at any rate.
Don’t I know that every mother of a first child is infallible, and knows
more about children than all the old doctors in creation? But,
supposing you had asked me, I should have said—Get him each day
to occupy himself a little longer with one plaything than he did the
day before. He plucks a daisy, gurgles over it with glee, and then in
an instant it drops from the nerveless grasp. Then you take it up, and
with the sweet coaxings you mothers know how to employ, get him
to examine it, in his infant fashion, for a minute, two minutes, three
whole minutes at a time.”
“I see; fix his thoughts on one thing at a time, and for as long as
you can, whether on what he sees or what he hears. You think if you
go on with that sort of thing with a child from his infancy he gets
accustomed to pay attention?”
“Not a doubt of it; and you may rely on it that what is called ability
—a different thing from genius, mind you, or even talent—ability is
simply the power of fixing the attention steadily on the matter in
hand, and success in life turns upon this cultivated power far more
than on any natural faculty. Lay a case before a successful barrister,
an able man of business, notice how he absorbs all you say; tell your
tale as ill as you like, he keeps the thread, straightens the tangle,
and by the time you have finished, has the whole matter spread out
in order under his mind’s eye. Now comes in talent, or genius, or
what you will, to deal with the facts he has taken in. But attention is
the attribute of the trained intellect, without which genius makes
shots in the dark.”
“But, don’t you think attention itself is a natural faculty, or talent, or
whatever we should call it?”
“Not a bit of it; it is entirely the result of training. A man may be
born with some faculty or talent for figures, or drawing, or music, but
attention is not a faculty at all; it is simply the power of bending such
faculties as one has to the work in hand; it is a key to success within
the reach of every one, but the power to turn it comes of training.
Circumstances may compel a man to train himself, but he does so at
the cost of great effort, and the chances are ten to one against his
making the effort. For the child, on the other hand, who has been
trained by his parents to fix his thoughts, all is plain sailing. He will
succeed, not a doubt of it.”
“But I thought school-work, Latin and mathematics, and those
sorts of things, should give this kind of intellectual training?”
“They should; but it’s the merest chance whether the right spring
is touched, and from what you say of Fred’s school-work, I should
say it was not touched in his case. ’Tis incredible how much solid
learning a boy will contrive to let slip by him instead of into him! No;
I’m afraid you must tackle the difficulty yourself. It would be a
thousand pities to let a fine fellow like Fred run to waste.”
“What can I do?”
“Well, we must begin where we are; Fred can attend, and
therefore remember: and he remembers what interests him. Now, to
return to your question, How are you to make a message to Mrs.
Milner as interesting to him as the affairs of his cricket club? There is
no interest in the thing itself; you must put interest into it from
without. There are a hundred ways of doing this: try one, and when
that is used up, turn to another. Only, with a boy of Fred’s age, you
cannot form the habit of attention as you could with a child. You can
only aid and abet; give the impulse; the training he must do for
himself.”
“Make it a little plainer, doctor; I have not yet reduced your
remarks to the practical level of something I can do.”
“No? Well, Fred must train himself, and you must feed him with
motives. Run over with him what we have been saying about
attention. Let him know how the land lies; that you cannot help him,
but that if he wants to make a man of himself he must make himself
attend and remember. Tell him it will be a stand-up fight, for this habit
is contrary to nature. He will like that; ’tis boy nature to show fight,
and the bigger and blacker you make the other side, the more will he
like to pitch in. When I was a boy I had to fight this very battle for
myself, and I’ll tell you what I did. I stuck up a card every week,
divided down the middle. One side was for ‘Remembers’; the other
side for ‘Forgets.’ I took myself to task every night—the very effort
was a help—and put a stroke for every ‘Remember’ and ‘Forget’ of
the day. I scored for every ‘Remember,’ and ‘t’other fellow’ for every
‘Forget.’ You don’t know how exciting it got. If by Thursday I had
thirty-three ‘Remembers’ and he thirty-six ‘Forgets’ it behoved me to
look alive; it was not only that ‘Forget’ might win the game, which
was up on Saturday night, but unless ‘Remember’ scored ten in
advance, the game was ‘drawn’—hardly a remove from lost.”
“That’s delicious! But, I wish, doctor, you would speak to Fred
yourself. A word from you would go a long way.”
“I’ll look out for a chance, but an outsider cannot do much;
everything rests with the boy himself, and his parents.”
CHAPTER VIII