The transfer of this training, however, is quite another matter.  There are pupils who can work up excellent topical recitations from their school text-books but who are utterly at sea in getting a grasp on a subject treated in other books.  Here again the problem lies in getting the pupil to see the method apart from its content, and to show him that it really brings results that are worth while.  If, in our training in the topical method, we are too formal and didactic, the art of study will begin and end right there.  It is here that the factor of motivation is of supreme importance.  When real problems are raised which require for their solution intelligent reading, the general worth of the method of study can be clearly shown.  I do not go so far as to say that the pupil should never be required to study unless he has a real problem that he wishes to solve.  In fact, I think that we still have a large place for the formal, systematic mastery of texts by every pupil in our schools.  I do contend, however, that the frequent introduction of real problems will give us an opportunity to show the pupil that the method that he has utilized in his more formal school work is adequate and essential to do the thing that appeals to him as worth while.  Only in this way, I believe, can we insure that transfer of training which is the important factor from our present standpoint.

And I ought also to say, parenthetically, that we should not interpret too narrowly this word “motivation.”  Let us remember that what may appeal to the adult as an effective motive does not always appeal to the child as such.  Economic motives are the most effective, probably, in our own adult lives, and probably very effective with high-school pupils, but economic motives are not always strong in young children, nor should we wish them to be.  It is not always true that the child will approach a school task sympathetically when he knows that the task is an essential preparation for the life that is going on about him.  He may work harder at a task in order to get ahead of his fellow-pupils than he would if the motive were to fit him to enter a shop or a factory.  Motive is largely a matter of instinct with the child, and he may, indeed, be perfectly satisfied with a school task just as it stands.  For example, we all know that children enjoy the right kind of drill.  Repetition, especially rhythmic repetition, is instinctive,—­it satisfies an inborn need.  Where such a condition exists, it is an obvious waste of time to search about for more indirect motives.  The economical thing to do is to turn the ready energy of the child into the channel that is already open to it, so long as this procedure fits in with the results that we must secure.  I feel like emphasizing this fact, inasmuch as the terms “problem interest” and “motivation” seem most commonly to be associated in the minds of teachers with what we adults term “real” or economic situations.  To learn a lesson well may often be a sufficient motive,—­may often constitute a “real” situation to the child,—­and if it does, it will serve very effectively our purposes in this other task,—­namely, getting the pupil to see the worth of the method that we ask him to employ.