Always become interested in the thing to which you are striving
to direct your attention. Boys have no difficulty in paying close
attention and remembering the ball score and the batting average of the
players but to ask them to pay as strict attention to a lecture on an
uninteresting subject is asking the impossible. The compelling element
of interest has been taken away.
This is a great lesson for all parents and teachers; if the results of
fixed attention are to be expected, the interest must be supplied and
maintained, by natural or imaginary means.