he Unusual, The
Uncertain, The Concrete, The Similar, The Antagonistic, The
Animate.

After discussing the relation of interest to attention we still face the
question: What is it that makes an interesting object, or an idea
interesting? Why do we find some things naturally interesting while
others are dull and commonplace? Of course, everything is not equally
interesting to all people. Individual differences make clear the fact
that a certain stimulus will call for a response in one particular
person, quite unlike the response manifested in a person of different
temperament and training. But psychologists are agreed that in spite of
these differences there are certain elements of interests that are
generally and fundamentally appealing to human nature. To know what it
is that makes for interest is one of the prerequisites of good teaching.

But before naming these "factors of interestingness," may we not also
name and discuss briefly some other essentials in the matter of creating
and maintaining interest?

In the first place it is good to remember that a teacher who would have
his pupils interested must himself be interested. If he would see their
faces light up with the glow of enthusiasm, he must be the charged
battery to generate the current. Interest begets interest. It is as
contagious as whooping cough--if a class is exposed it is sure to catch
it. The teacher who constantly complains of a dull class, very likely
is simply facing a reaction to his own dullness or disagreeableness.
"Blue Monday" isn't properly so named merely because of the drowsy
pupil. The teacher inevitably sets the pace and determines the tone of
his class. Many a teacher when tired, or out of patience, has concluded
a recitation feeling that his pupils were about the most stupid group he
has ever faced; the same teacher keyed up to enthusiasm has felt at the
close of another recitation that these same pupils could not be
surpassed. A student with whom the writer talked a short time ago
remarked that she could always tell whether the day's class was going to
be interesting under a particular teacher as soon as she caught the mood
in which she entered the classroom. Half-heartedness, indifference, and
unpleasantness are all negative--they neither attract nor stimulate.
Interest and enthusiasm are the sunshine of the classroom--they are to
the human soul what the sun's rays are to the plant.

The second great guarantee of intere