The spontaneous, or nonvoluntary, attention that arises from interest is the basis on which all true education and training must be founded.  The mind, and especially the child’s mind, is so constituted that its full power is not brought to bear except under the stimulus and compulsion of interest.  It is the story which is so entrancing that we cannot tear ourself away from it, the game which is so exciting as to cause us to forget all else in watching it, the lecture or sermon which is so interesting that we are absorbed in listening to it, that claims our best thought and comprehension.  It is when our mind’s powers are thus driven by a tidal wave of interest that we are at our best, and that we receive and register the lasting impressions which become a part of our mental equipment and character.

This does not mean, however, that there is no place for voluntary attention in the child’s training.  For not everything can be made so inviting that the appeal will at all times bring about the concentration necessary.  And in any case a part of the child’s education is to learn self-direction, self-compulsion, and self-control.  There are many occasions when the interest is not sufficient to hold attention steady to the task in hand; it is at this point that voluntary attention should come in to add its help to provide the required effort and concentration.  There are many circumstances under which interest will secure a moderate amount of application of mental energy to the task, but where the will should step in and command an additional supply of effort, and so attain full instead of partial results.

Children should, therefore, be trained to give attention.  They should be taught to take and maintain the attitude of attention throughout the lesson period, and not be allowed to become listless or troublesome the moment their interest is not held to the highest pitch.

THE APPEAL TO INTEREST

Sometimes we speak of “arousing the child’s interest,” or of “creating an interest” in a topic we are teaching.  Strictly speaking, this is incorrect.  The child’s interest, when rightly appealed to, does not have to be “aroused,” nor does interest have to be “created.”

Every normal child is naturally alert, curious, interested in what concerns him.  Who has not taken a child for a walk or gone with a group of children on an excursion, and been amazed at their capacity for interest in every object about them and for attention to an endless chain of impressions from their varied environment?  Who has not observed children in a game, and noted their complete absorption in its changing aspects?  Who has not called a child from an interesting tale in a book he was reading, and found that it required the combined force of our authority and the child’s will to break the spell of his interest and separate him from his book?  Interest is always ready to flow in resistless current if we can but find the right channel and a way to set it free.  When we find our class uninterested, therefore, we must first of all seek the explanation not in the children, but in ourselves, our methods, or the matter we teach.