Hence in attempting to cultivate the higher emotional nature we must bear in mind the functional relation of affective processes to intelligence. The development of the higher emotions is absolutely dependent upon intellectual expansion. They are a result of rationalization.

CHAPTER XXVI

INTEREST AND EDUCATION

Nature of Interest.-Interest is an attitude of the mind which impels it toward the object of its contemplation. The impulse is experienced because of a feeling of the worth of the object or action contemplated. Interest is usually a pleasurable state of mind, but it may sometimes be a painful state. In either case it is fascinating and compelling. One who is thoroughly interested in anything has his whole mind actively concerned with it. Whenever freed from other things the mind normally reverts to the object of its deepest interest. Dewey says: "The root idea of the term seems to be that of being engaged, engrossed, or entirely taken up with some activity because of its recognized worth. The etymology of the term interesse, to be between, points in the same direction." 1 Interest may be of varying degrees and kinds, from pleasure in cutting colored papers, or curiosity concerning geological specimens, to intense love for another person or love for a divine being. As before noted, the interest may be a painful attitude. The type discussed in this chapter, however, will be pleasurable states.

In addition to being an emotional state, interest is very closely related to the intellect on the one side and to volition on the other. From the definition it will be seen that all interest has an "active or propulsive phase." There is always an accompaniment of self-expression, an active attempt by the individual at the identification of the self and the object of its interest. This can, however, only be the outcome of knowledge. To be concrete, if I am interested in a thing I attempt to make it my pos

1 Interest in Relation to Training of the Will, p. 13, Second Supplement to the First Yearbook of the National Herbart Society.

session, or I try to make the thing, or I attempt to accomplish the line of action, doing, making, understanding, possessing, etc. Interest makes the mind kinetic, while knowledge gaining without interest is a static condition. Things which interest us are voluntarily and purposely attended to and without external compulsion. A majority of the stimulations of the senses never receive attention largely because they have no interest for us. James says: "Millions of items of the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind-without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos. Interest alone gives accent and emphasis, light and shade, background and foreground-intelligible perspective, in a word. It varies in every creature, but without it the consciousness of every creature would be a gray, chaotic indiscriminateness, impossible for us even to conceive." 1

The question of interest is one that has received much discussion of late. It is a very important question, and its interpretation affects vitally one's whole method of teaching, and it is even determinative of subject-matter from the kindergarten through the university. Even yet it is very erroneously interpreted by many. Its answer as exemplified in the daily training of children is coloring our whole national existence. Such points as the following are involved: Shall the child follow his own pleasure in determining what his activities shall be? Or, should the educator set up certain ideals, the attainment of which necessarily involves the pursuit of activities, many of which may be even distasteful to the child? Should we seek to keep the child happy or should he be brought to feel the seriousness of life? Should pleasure-giving means be employed in instruction so that the child forgets that he is working? Should learning become as nearly as possible play? Or, should the play element be wholly eliminated from tasks? Again we have the more ultimate and equally complex problem whether interest is to be

'James, Principles of Psychology, I, pp. 402-403.

a means of education or an end. That is, shall the child be interested in order that he may understand things, which are possibly disagreeable, but deemed necessary for his welfare, or should he learn things in order that he may develop or have created certain desirable interests in life? If interest is to be a means, then shall we try to secure interest in the thing itself— immediate interest, or should we secure a mediator through which interest may in turn be secured and through which we may smuggle in the otherwise uninteresting?

Interest as a Means.-The average teacher seems to regard all interest as mediate; a sort of sugar coating which will render bitter pills less objectionable. So many pages of arithmetic are to be mastered and devices must be sought which will help accomplish the end. Under the guise of one thing, if needs be, the child must get another thing. New words are to be called fishes in a pond; leaves called fairies; geography lessons called journeys, etc. The young teacher is apt to think, and many teachers of pedagogy lead them to believe, that interest is largely a matter of manner of presentation of a subject. It is supposed that by proper skill, sufficient smiles, a lively manner, and plenty of amusing stories any subject can be made interesting to any pupils. The whole interest is supposed to inhere in the teacher. To keep the pupils good-natured, to keep them in school, to avoid conflict, to cause them to like her, seem to be the dominating influences in many teachers' work. They seem to regard all effort as opposed to interest. Such teachers seldom care what kind of interest is felt in the subject after the task has been accomplished. Will the pupil choose this subject later on? Does he apply it to his daily life with pleasure, or does he drop it out of his existence when it ceases to be his lesson? These results do not seem to be of concern.

Interest to such teachers means pleasure, amusement, having a good time. They usually feel that struggle, work, overcoming of obstacles are antagonistic to interest. In planning to keep pupils interested they usually try to amuse them, to relieve from difficulties, to smooth the path. "It is often claimed that if

there is dulness and disgust with a study it is the fault of the teacher. As Mr. Quick says: 'I would go so far as to lay it down as a rule, that whenever children are inattentive and apparently take no interest in a lesson, the teacher should always look first to himself for the reason. There are perhaps no circumstances in which a lack of interest does not originate in the mode of instruction adopted by the teacher.' This statement assumes that all knowledge is about equally interesting to pupils, and everything depends upon the manner in which the teacher deals with it." 1

Interest as an End.-But while it is desirable to produce interest in order to secure study, interest as an end is desirable. One of the great aims of education should be to stimulate abiding interests in the studies themselves, and also to make the studies lead to permanent and desirable life interests. Spencer tells us2 that, "As a final test by which to judge any plan of culture, should come the question,-Does it create a pleasurable excitement in the pupils?" Again he says that if a given course of study "produce no interest, or less interest than another course, we should relinquish it." McMurry says: "The common understanding has been that instruction is aiming at knowledge, and that interest is one of the means by which that aim can be best attained; in brief, knowledge is the end and interest is the means. But the new stand-point asserts interest to be the highest aim of instruction, and ideas to be the means by which that object can be reached; that is, interest is the end and knowledge is the means. Thus the tables have been turned. There is now a strong inclination on the part of many to measure the success of years of teaching not by the quantity of information one possesses on Commencement Day, but by the degree of interest engendered in the lines of study followed. The attitude of the mind toward study is, to them, the most important point." " Herbart regarded interest as the chief outcome of the pursuit of the course of study. Not only should interests in the particular

'McMurry, Elements of General Method, 5th ed., p. 73. 'Education, p. 127.

3 Educational Review, 11, p. 147.