of symbols and in their memorized reproduction becomes in many pupils
a substitute for the original and vital interest in reality; and all
because, the subject-matter of the course of study being out of relation
to the concrete mind of the individual, some substitute bond to hold it
in some kind of working relation to the mind must be discovered and
elaborated.

The second substitute for living motivation in the subject-matter is
that of contrast-effects; the material of the lesson is rendered
interesting, if not in itself, at least in contrast with some
alternative experience. To learn the lesson is more interesting than to
take a scolding, be held up to general ridicule, stay after school,
receive degradingly low marks, or fail to be promoted. And very much of
what goes by the name of "discipline," and prides itself upon opposing
the doctrines of a soft pedagogy and upon upholding the banner of effort
and duty, is nothing more or less than just this appeal to "interest" in
its obverse aspect--to fear, to dislike of various kinds of physical,
social, and personal pain. The subject-matter does not appeal; it cannot
appeal; it lacks origin and bearing in a growing experience. So the
appeal is to the thousand and one outside and irrelevant agencies which
may serve to throw, by sheer rebuff and rebound, the mind back upon the
material from which it is constantly wandering.

Human nature being what it is, however, it tends to seek its motivation
in the agreeable rather than in the disagreeable, in direct pleasure
rather than in alternative pain. And so has come up the modern theory
and practice of the "interesting," in the false sense of that term. The
material is still left; so far as its own characteristics are concerned,
just material externally selected and formulated. It is still just
so much geography and arithmetic and grammar study; not so much
potentiality of child-experience with regard to language, earth, and
numbered and measured reality. Hence the difficulty of bringing the mind
to bear upon it; hence its repulsiveness; the tendency for attention to
wander; for other acts and images to crowd in and expel the lesson.
The legitimate way out is to transform the material; to psychologize
it--that is, once more, to take it and to develop it within the range
and scope of the child's life. But it is easier and simpler to leave it
as it is, and then by trick of method to _arouse_ interest, to _make_ it
_interesting_;