Module 2-1 -97from their human context. Impersonal material should
be presented so far as possible in the role it actually
plays in life. The strength of the interest in other persons and in their activities and aims is a natural
resource for making activities broad, generous, and
enlightened in scope; while the physical, manual and
scientific interests in their identification with
OBJECTS make for a broadening of the self.
The psychology of interest may be stated as follows: An interest is primarily a form of self-expressive activity that is, of growth that comes through acting upon nascent tendencies. If we examine this activity on the side of what is done, we get its objective features, the ideas, objects, etc., to which the interest is attached, about which it clusters. If we take into account that it is self-development, that self finds itself in this content, we get its emotional or appreciative side. Any account of genuine interest must, therefore, grasp it as out-going activity holding within its grasp an object of direct value.
Interest may be direct or indirect. It is direct when it puts itself forth with no thought of anything beyond. It satisfies in and of itself. Play is an example of this type. In the indirect type things indifferent or even repulsive in themselves often become of interest because of assuming relationships and connections of which we were previously unaware. A math lesson previously uninteresting can take on new life when applied to something in the child's life which personally affects him such as learning averages through using the
baseball player's average.
In reality, the principle of "making things interesting" means that subjects be selected in relation to the child's
present experience, powers, and needs; and that (in case he does not perceive or appreciate this relevancy) the new material be presented in such a way as to enable the child to appreciate its bearings, its relationships, its value in connection with what already has significance for him. It is this bringing to
consciousness of the bearings of the new material which constitute the reality, so often perverted both by friend and foe, in "making things interesting."
CRITERION FOR JUDGING WHETHER THE PRINCIPLE OF INTEREST IS BEING RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY EMPLOYED. Interest is normal and reliance upon it educationally legitimate in the degree in which the activity in question involves growth or development.