l's motive might be to
find out how the poet had described a familiar game. In a nature study
lesson on "The Rabbit," the teacher's motive would be to lead the pupil
to make certain observations and draw certain inferences and thus add
something to his facility in observation and inference. The pupil's
motive in the same lesson would be to discover something new about a
very interesting animal. In general, the teacher's motive will be (1) to
give the pupil a certain kind of useful knowledge; (2) to develop and
strengthen certain organs; or (3) to add something to his mechanical
skill by the forming of habitual reactions. In general, the pupil's
motive will be to learn some fact, to satisfy some instinct, or perform
some activity that is interesting either in itself or because of its
relation to some desired end. That is, the pupil's motive is the
satisfaction of an interest or the promotion of a purpose.

=Pupil's Motive May Be Indirect.=--It is evident from the foregoing that
the pupil's motive for applying himself to any lesson may differ from
the real lesson problem, or motive. For instance, in mastering the
reading of a certain selection, the pupil's chief motive in applying
himself to this particular task may be to please and win the approbation
of the teacher. The true lesson problem, however, is to enable the
learner to give expression to the thoughts and feelings of the author.
When the aim, or motive, is thus somewhat disconnected from the lesson
problem itself, it becomes an _indirect_ motive. While such indirect
motives are undoubtedly valuable and must often be used with young
children, it is evident that when the pupil's motive is more or less
directly associated with the real problem of the lesson, it will form a
better centre for the selecting and organizing of the ideas entering
into the new experience.

=Relation to Pupil's Feeling.=--A chief essential in connection with the
pupil's motive, or attitude, toward the lesson problem, is that the
child should _feel_ a value in the problem. That is, his apprehension of
the problem should carry with it a desire to secure a complete mastery
of the problem from a sense of its intrinsic value. The difference in
feeling which a pupil may have toward the worth of a problem would be
noticed by comparing the attitude of a class in the study of a military
biography or a pioneer adventure taken from Canadian or United States
sources respectively. In the case of the fo