WHAT MAKES FOR INTEREST
OUTLINE--CHAPTER XII
Individual differences and interest.--What makes for
interest.--Interest begets interest.--Preparation is a great
guarantee.--Knowledge of the lives of boys and girls a great
help.--The factors of interestingness: The Vital, The Unusual, The
Uncertain, The Concrete, The Similar, The Antagonistic, The
Animate.
After discussing the relation of interest to attention we still face the
question: What is it that makes an interesting object, or an idea
interesting? Why do we find some things naturally interesting while
others are dull and commonplace? Of course, everything is not equally
interesting to all people. Individual differences make clear the fact
that a certain stimulus will call for a response in one particular
person, quite unlike the response manifested in a person of different
temperament and training. But psychologists are agreed that in spite of
these differences there are certain elements of interests that are
generally and fundamentally appealing to human nature. To know what it
is that makes for interest is one of the prerequisites of good teaching.
But before naming these "factors of interestingness," may we not also
name and discuss briefly some other essentials in the matter of creating
and maintaining interest?
In the first place it is good to remember that a teacher who would have
his pupils interested must himself be interested. If he would see their
faces light up with the glow of enthusiasm, he must be the charged
battery to generate the current. Interest begets interest. It is as
contagious as whooping cough--if a class is exposed it is sure to catch
it. The teacher who constantly complains of a dull class, very likely
is simply facing a reaction to his own dullness or disagreeableness.
"Blue Monday" isn't properly so named merely because of the drowsy
pupil. The teacher inevitably sets the pace and determines the tone of
his class. Many a teacher when tired, or out of patience, has concluded
a recitation feeling that his pupils were about the most stupid group he
has ever faced; the same teacher keyed up to enthusiasm has felt at the
close of another recitation that these same pupils could not be
surpassed. A student with whom the writer talked a short time ago
remarked that she could always tell whether the day's class was going to
be interesting under a particular teacher as soon as she caught the mood
in which she entered the classroom. Half-heartedness, indifference, and
unpleasantness are all negative--they neither attract nor stimulate.
Interest and enthusiasm are the sunshine of the classroom--they are to
the human soul what the sun's rays are to the plant.
The second great guarantee of interest is preparation. The teacher needs
to have his subject matter so thoroughly in mind that, free from
textbook and notes, he can reach out to a real contact with his boys and
girls. If his eyes are glued to his book, he cannot hope to arouse keen
interest. The eye is a great force in gripping the attention of a class
or audience. They want nothing to stand between them and the speaker.
Not long ago one of the most forceful and eloquent public speakers in
Utah failed miserably, in addressing a thoroughly fine audience, because
he was lost in the machinery of his notes. His material was
excellent--his power as an orator unquestioned--yet he was bound down by
a lack of preparation that cost him the mastery of his audience.
Not only does adequate preparation enable a teacher to reach out and
take hold of his pupils; it makes it possible for him to capitalize on
the situations that are bound to arise in class discussion. A concrete
illustration to clear up a troublesome question, an appropriate incident
to hit off some general truth, a happy phrase to crystallize a
thought--all these things are born only of adequate preparation.
Not long ago a candidate for the presidency of the United States
delighted an audience of ten thousand or more in the Salt Lake
Tabernacle by his remarkable handling of questions and comments thrown
at him from that vast audience. There was no hesitancy or uncertainty.
He spoke "as one who knew." He was prepared. He had so lived with the
questions of the day that they fairly seemed to be part of him. The
interesting teacher never teaches all he knows. His reserve material
inspires both interest and confidence. A class begins to lose interest
in a teacher the moment they suspect that his stock in trade is running
low. The mystery, "how one small head could carry all he knew," is still
fascinating. Thorough preparation, moreover, minimizes the likelihood of
routine, the monotony of which is always deadening. A class likes a
teacher--is interested in him--when it can't anticipate just what he is
going to do next and how he is going to do it.
A further aid in holding interest is to know intimately the life of the
boys and girls taught. To appreciate fully their attitude--to know what
sort of things in life generally appeal to them--is a very great asset
to any teacher. If a teacher knows that a boy's reaction to the story of
the Israelites' crossing the Red Sea is that that story is "some bunk,"
he is fortified in knowing how to present other subjects which are
similar tests to a boy's faith and understanding. To know pupils'
attitudes and mode of life is to know what sort of illustrations to use,
what emphasis to put upon emotional material, what stress to lay on
practical application. In short, it is to know just how to "connect up."
It stimulates to a testing of values so that a teacher selects and
adapts his material to the needs of the boys and girls whom he teaches.
And, finally, as a key to interest, a teacher needs to know what the
"factors of interestingness" are. According to the findings of the
Public Speaking Department of the University of Chicago, they are summed
up in these seven terms:
The Vital
The Unusual
The Uncertain
The Concrete
The Similar
The Antagonistic
The Animate
This list becomes more and more helpful as it is pondered. It is
surprising to find how experience can be explained on the score of
interest by reference to these terms. Those things are vital which
pertain to life--which affect existence. Dangers are always interesting.
Catastrophies are fascinating. Just today all America is scanning the
newspapers throughout the country to find an explanation of the Wall
Street explosion. We shall not soon forget the feverish interest that
gripped the people of the world during our recent world wars.
When life is at stake, interest runs high. So it does when property,
liberty, and other sacred rights, so vital to life, are affected.
Anything vital enough to justify the publication of an "extra" may be
depended upon to grip the interest of men and women.
It is equally clear that a fascination attaches to things that are
unusual. New styles attract because of this fact. Let a man oddly
dressed walk along a thoroughfare--the passersby are interested
immediately. A "loud" hat or necktie, or other item of apparel, attracts
attention because it is out of the ordinary. Much of the interest and
delight in traveling lies in this element of the new and unusual which
the traveler encounters. The experiences of childhood which stand out
most prominently are usually those which at the time riveted themselves
to the mind through the interest of their extraordinariness.
Every reader knows the fascination of uncertainty. "How will the book
turn out?" prompts many a person to turn through hundreds of pages of a
novel. An accident is interesting not only because of its vital
significance, but because there is always a question as to how seriously
those involved may be hurt. One of the clearest illustrations of the
force of the uncertain is found attending baseball games. Let the score
stand at 10 to 2 in the eighth inning and the grandstands and bleachers
begin to empty. Few spectators care to remain. The game is too clearly
settled. As the boys say, it is "sewed up" and there is nothing
uncertain to grip interest. But let the score stand 3 to 2 or 2 to 2 in
the eighth and even the man scheduled home for dinner stays to the end.
He wants to know how the game is "coming out."
It is easier also to be interested in concrete than in abstract things.
General truths are not gripping--concrete illustrations of those truths
are. If I declare that it is important to have faith, I create but
little interest in an audience. But if I tell that same audience how
some individual has been miraculously healed through faith, I have their
interest completely. Concrete illustrations fit into and link up with
our own experiences so easily and forcefully that they are particularly
interesting.
So, too, with things that are similar. The mind naturally links like
with like. We are fond of making comparisons. The interest in the
similar is due to that fundamental law of learning that we proceed from
what is known to that which is unknown and we proceed along points of
similarity.
And how natural it seems to be interested in things antagonistic! Our
love of contests of all sorts is evidence of the fact. Who can resist
the interest that attaches to a quarrel--a fight--a clash of any kind.
The best of classes will leave the best of teachers, mentally at least,
to witness a dog fight. Our champion prize fighters make fortunes out of
man's interest in the antagonistic.
And then, finally, we are interested in the animate. We like action.
Things in motion have a peculiar fascination. Who does not watch with
interest a moving locomotive? Advertising experts appreciate the appeal
of the animate, as is evidenced by the great variety of moving objects
that challenge our interest as we pass up and down the streets of a city
and we respond to the challenge. In fact, it is natural to respond to
the appeal of all of these seven terms--hence their significance in
teaching.
* * * * *
QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS--CHAPTER XII
1. Discuss the force of individual differences in choosing material that
will be interesting.
2. Why is it so essential that the teacher be interested in what he
hopes to interest his pupils in?
3. Show how preparation makes for interest.
4. Why is an intimate acquaintance with the lives of pupils so essential
a factor with the interesting teacher?
5. Illustrate concretely the force of each of the factors of
interestingness.
HELPFUL REFERENCES
Those listed in Chapter XI.