There is no
question of getting along without this bond of connection; the only
question is whether it be such as grows out of the material itself in
relation to the mind, or be imported and hitched on from some outside
source. If the subject-matter of the lessons be such as to have an
appropriate place within the expanding consciousness of the child, if it
grows out of his own past doings, thinkings, and sufferings, and grows
into application in further achievements and receptivities, then no
device or trick of method has to be resorted to in order to enlist
"interest." The psychologized _is_ of interest--that is, it is placed in
the whole of conscious life so that it shares the worth of that life.
But the externally presented material, conceived and generated in
standpoints and attitudes remote from the child, and developed in
motives alien to him, has no such place of its own. Hence the recourse
to adventitious leverage to push it in, to factitious drill to drive it
in, to artificial bribe to lure it in.

Three aspects of this recourse to outside ways for giving the
subject-matter some psychological meaning may be worth mentioning.
Familiarity breeds contempt, but it also breeds something like
affection. We get used to the chains we wear, and we miss them when
removed. 'Tis an old story that through custom we finally embrace
what at first wore a hideous mien. Unpleasant, because meaningless,
activities may get agreeable if long enough persisted in. _It is
possible for the mind to develop interest in a routine or mechanical
procedure if conditions are continually supplied which demand that mode
of operation and preclude any other sort._ I frequently hear dulling
devices and empty exercises defended and extolled because "the children
take such an 'interest' in them." Yes, that is the worst of it; the
mind, shut out from worthy employ and missing the taste of adequate
performance, comes down to the level of that which is left to it to
know and do, and perforce takes an interest in a cabined and cramped
experience. To find satisfaction in its own exercise is the normal law
of mind, and if large and meaningful business for the mind be denied, it
tries to content itself with the formal movements that remain to it--and
too often succeeds, save in those cases of more intense activity which
cannot accommodate themselves, and that make up the unruly and
_declasse_ of our school product. An interest in the formal apprehension