upon the experiences provided and will reach out after more. This is what is meant by having instruction appeal to the student's interests. It conceives of interests as dynamic active tendencies in human beings, which the school can take advantage of and so direct that the energies of the students will be spent in mastering materials and processes that are educative.

A business proposition, not a matter of sentiment. This way of regarding the utilization of student's present interests as an aid in instruction is purely utilitarian and cold-blooded in character. There is nothing sentimental about it, any more than it would be considered a matter of sentiment for a traveling salesman to try to sell an improved adding machine to a business man by appealing to the man's interest in securing speed, economy, and accuracy in his bookkeeping. In the selling of most kinds of goods the salesman can assume, on the part of the prospective buyer, the existence of certain active interests which are an essential part of the latter's business activity. The salesman builds upon these in the same way that the teacher ought to build upon the active interests of students which are the essential elements in their lives. When the school is adapted to social needs, it is endeavoring to accomplish certain fundamental human purposes which are paralleled by the students' interests. This is especially true during the adolescent period. It is simply a matter of common business sense to approach the purposes to be attained through their corresponding interests, in the same way that the skilled salesman approaches his prospective customer through the latter's interests.

Opposed by advocates of drudgery in school. The view of instruction which has just been presented regards the school as preparing in very definite ways for the manifold activities of life in which most normal human beings are vitally interested. With such a general point of view it is a simple matter to so organize instruction as to utilize the natural energies of

students in getting the activities of the school carried on. The opposite view of instruction, which considers its materials and processes to be essentially and necessarily distasteful to students, prevailed in secondary instruction for a long time and still has some ardent advocates, especially in schools which maintain the old classical curriculum with little modification. This view may be designated as the drudgery view of instruction. According to this view Latin is a splendid instrument of instruction, because in teaching it we can so easily assign to students definite distasteful tasks which will develop their will power and thus prepare them to attack the distasteful duties of life.

Achievements in life based on intense interests, not on drudgery. The drudgery view of learning is certainly fallacious if we regard the school (as we have been doing in this book) as a place that prepares in quite specific ways for the activities of life, because, to do this economically, it is necessary to work with and not against the active interests of students. Moreover, it is probably a more valid view of life and achievement in general to say that persons who accomplish great things in life are those who are actuated or driven by intense, abiding interests. This is true of most of the great leaders in science, literature, politics, morals, and religion. As compared with these, the number of persons is relatively small who have accomplished things by saying, "Here are great unpleasant duties. I must perform them in spite of the fact that I hate to do it. The fundamental activities of my life are certainly uninteresting; they make no appeal to me; but I must find some way to drive myself to my work." Moreover, the same contrast would probably be true of ordinary people who try to lead worthy lives; most of them do worthy deeds because they have strong, abiding, specific interests in the activities represented, not because they are driven by the sense of duty to do distasteful tasks. Hence the preparation for a life of useful service should be

made by directing the active present interests of students in such a way that the worthy interests of life grow out of them.

Difficult undertakings often the most interesting. — A corollary of the theory which regards intense interests as the basis of achievement is the statement that intense interest may be manifested in accomplishing very difficult things. The most extreme examples of this fact are those in which the difficult activity is interesting largely because of its difficulty. The best illustrations from school life are found in the interest with which some students attack difficult exercises in geometry. An example from ordinary life is mountain climbing. This is illustrated not only by the activities of professional climbers, who go to the ends of the earth to scale the highest peaks, but also by some of the climbing undertaken in the Alps by amateurs simply in order to climb difficult mountains.

Interest in the final end lends interest to intermediate steps. Very commonly an intense interest is maintained in achieving some end regardless of the difficulties which beset the path, and the interest in the final end develops an interest in mastering the intermediate difficulties. Among the best examples are the careers of great singers and actors and actresses. These have been well illustrated in the many recent accounts of the long and varied training which great singers must go through, including not only vocal training proper but also linguistic training and severe physical regimen, to develop a powerful physique. In such cases the intense interest in the final achievement impels the singer to practice the intermediate processes, which sometimes, as a result, become very interesting in themselves. To be sure, specific efforts of the will are often necessary in starting the learner upon a period of practice, but such efforts are commonly not actuated by an abstract sense of duty, but by the interest in the final goal, to which the relation of the intermediate steps is clearly perceived. In view of this discussion we may assume that an

emphasis upon interests as the basis of effective and economical learning in the school is perfectly consistent with prolonged, intense application by the students in mastering difficult assignments.

Part played by interest in learning shown in preceding chapters. The point of view which regards present interests as the basis for effort and achievement in instruction has been assumed throughout the preceding chapters. Thus, in Chapter II (p. 22) the development of abiding, many-sided interests was named as one of the important proximate aims of instruction. In Chapter IV (p. 80) the adaptation of subject matter to the present interests of students was set forth as one of the chief factors in carrying out the psychological instead of the logical point of view in organizing subject matter. In Chapter X (p. 259) and Chapter XI (p. 278) this same point was given detailed application to training in habits of enjoyment and expression. In the chapter on practice and drill (p. 149) the most convincing fact which we possess concerning the value of concentration of attention based on interest was stated in connection with Book's experiments on acquiring skill in typewriting. This fact was that improvement in speed, as shown by actual measurements, was greatest when interest and concentration of attention were greatest. Periods of dead mechanical practice were characterized by little improvement in speed. Moreover, it was clear in Book's study that the concentration of attention which was effective was not secured by a dead heave of the will, but was based upon spontaneous interest.

Interest and attention; spontaneous and forced attention; a working classification. The last statement in the preceding paragraph furnishes the point of departure for an analysis of the methods of securing interest and concentrated attention, for attention may be characterized as either (1) spontaneous or (2) forced. Spontaneous attention seems to come of itself, either because the individual is impelled

from within by active interests or because of the attractiveness of some object which appeals to some tendency in the individual. Forced attention, on the other hand, seems to be especially constructed or manufactured by the individual, either in response to his own idea that he must attend or in response to a demand from some other person. It is always difficult to get satisfactory descriptive terms to designate kinds of attention, but for the purposes of our pedagogical discussions the use of the terms spontaneous and forced as defined above will be sufficiently clear.

Spontaneous attention more effective than forced attention. As pointed out in our discussion of Book's experiments on learning to use the typewriter (see p. 152), spontaneous attention is more effective than forced attention, because the former is usually undivided and hence is more constant and concentrated. On the other hand, forced attention (at least in the beginning of the attentive act) is usually divided, for not only is the learner endeavoring to give attention to the matter in hand, but he also has in mind the fact that he must give attention, and he has to keep thinking that he must check himself from failing to attend to the matter in hand. Moreover, he is at the same time often impelled or attracted by some other object of attention which appeals to his interests. In such a situation, attention to the matter to which he is endeavoring to give forced attention is likely to be quite fluctuating; hence, not concentrated; hence, not very effective. As an example of such a situation let the student call to mind his own efforts to study for an examination when a conversation in which he is interested is being carried on across the table from him and he realizes that he has only twenty minutes left in which to get ready for the examination. Or call to mind efforts to study after returning from a dance, with the mind full of alluring melodies and memories, or after laying down an unfinished and exciting book. It takes no fine psychological measurements to show