Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/106

 INTEREST

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INTEREST

In fact they develop a kind of appetite for future related experiences, which are henceforth assimilated, or, in Herbartian language, apperceived, with facility and satisfaction. The latent group of ideas bearing on any topic constitute an interest in the sense of a permanent disposition of the mind, whilst the feeling of the process of apperception, or assimilation, is interest viewed as a form of actual consciousness. But an event of a liizarre or novel character, which we may find difficulty in comprehending or assimilating with past experience, may also fascinate our mind. The strange, the horrible, may thus awaken at least temporarily a keen, if morbid, interest. Still, in so far as such experiences may excite fear or anxiety, they come under the general principle that interest is associated with personal pleasure or pain.

Broadly speaking, then, all those things which arouse or sustain non-voluntary or spontaneous attention are interesting, whilst phenomena to which we can attend only w-ith volimtary effort are uninter- esting. The child is interested in its food and its play, also in any operations associated with pleasure or pain in the past. The boy is interested in his games, in those exercises which he has come to con- nect with his own well-being, and in branches of study which have already effected such a lodgment in the mind that new ideas and items of information are readily assimilated and associated with what has gone before. Men are interested in those subjects which have become interwoven and connected with the main occupations of their lives.

Pedagogics. — The psychology of interest being thus understood, its capital importance in the work of education becomes obvious. It is in his insistence on the value of this mental and moral force, and his systematic treatment of it in application to the busi- ness of teaching, that Herbart's chief importance as an educationist lies. In proportion as the teacher can awaken and sustain the interest of the pupil, so much greater will be the facility, the rapidity, and the tenacitj' of the mental acquisition of the latter. It must be admitted that, in beginning most branches of knowledge, a number of "dry" facts, which possess little interest of themselves for the child, have usually to be learned by sheer labour. The spontaneous attention of the pupil will not fix on and adhere with satisfaction to the ideas presented in the opening pages of a text-book. Here the teacher is compelled to demand the effort of voluntary attention, even though it be not pleasant, on the part of the pupil. Still, he will wisely do his utmost to make some of the future utility of the immediate labour intelligible to the student, and in this way attach mediate interest to that which is dull and unattractive in itself. More- over, as the protracted effort of attention to what is in itself uninteresting is fatiguing, he will keep the lessons in these subjects short at first, and vary the monotony by enlivening and useful bits of informa- tion, illustrations, comments, and the like, which will afford relief and rest between the attacks on the sub- stanc(^ of the lesson. At this stage the master aims at being an interesting teacher; he cannot as yet make his subject interesting, which, however, should be his ultimate goal.

But, as the .student advances, there is being formed in his mind an increasing group of cognitions, a grow- ing mass of ideas about this branch of study, which makes the entrance of each new idea connected with it easier and more wu'leoine. There is a feeling of satis- faction as each new item fits into the old, and is as- similated or "apperceived" by the latter. The pupil begins to feel that the ideas he already jwssesses give him a certain power to understand and manipulate the subject of his study, lie has become con.scious of an extension of this power with each eidargement of lii.s knowledge, and the desire for more knowledge begins to manifest itself. Here we have apperceptive

attention or immediate interest. To generate this immediate interest in the subject itself being a main olijeet of the teacher, this purpose should determine his exposition of the subject as a whole, and also guide him in dealing with the student from day to day. His exposition should be orderly, proceeding logically with proper divisions: the more important principles or ideas should be firmly fixed by repetition, the subdivisions located in their proper places, and their connexion with the heads under which they fall made clear. By this means the ideas about the subject introduced into the mind of the pupil are built up into a rational or organized system. This secures greater command of what is already known, as well as greater facility in the reception of further knowl- edge, and so expedites the growth of interest. But besides this orderliness of exposition in the treatment of the matter, which might be formal and lifeless, the teacher must be continually adapting his instruction to the present condition of the pupil's mind. He must constantly keep in view what ideas the student has already acquired. He has to stir up the related set of ideas by judicious questions or repetitions, and excite the appetite of curiosity, when about to com- municate further information; he has to show the connexion and bind the new item with the previous knowledge by comparison, illustration, and explana- tion. Finally, he is to be alive to every opportunity to generalize, and to show how the new information may be applied by setting suitable exercises or prob- lems to be worked out by the pupil himself. He thus leads the pupil to realize his increase of power, which is one of the most effective means of fostering active interest both in the subject itself and in the relation of its various parts with the whole.

Modern pedagogy, however, especially since Her- bart, insists on the value of interest not only as a means, but as an educational end in itself. For the Herbartian school the aim of education should be the formation of a man of "many-sided interest". This is to be attained by the judicious cultivation of the various faculties — intellectual, emotional, and moral — that is by the realization of man's entire being with all its aptitudes. It may be conceded that, with cer- tain qualifications and reservations, there is a sub- stantial amount of truth in this view. Worthy inter- ests ennoble and enrich human life both in point of dignity and happiness. The faculties, mental and physical, clamour for exercise; man's activities will find an outlet; the capacities of his soul are given to be realized. Ceteris paribiis, one good test of the educational value of any branch of study, and of the efficiency of the method by which it has been taught, is to be found in the degree in which it becomes a permanent interest to the mind. The exercise of our mental powers on a subject, which has already created for itself a real interest, is accompanied by pleasure. A man's business or profession, when he is working independently for himself, should, and normally does, become a topic of keen interest. But, unless his life is to be very narrow and stinted, he should also have other interests. His leisure hours require them. Wholesome intellectual, social, and aesthetic interests are amongst the most effective agencies for over- coming the temptations to drink, gambling, and other degrading forms of amusement. The pressure of ennui and idleness will develop a most harmful dis- content, unless the faculties find suitable employment. The man who, after a number of years devoted exclu- sively to the work of making money, retires from busi- ness in order to enjoy himself, is liable to find life almost insupportable through want of interesting occupation. A suliject. respecting which the mind is in possession of an organizeil system of ideas, is neces- sary to man for the agreeable exercise of his faculties, and such an interest requires time for its growth. Although then it is erroneous to maintain that many-