is fortified in knowing how to present other subjects which are
similar tests to a boy's faith and understanding. To know pupils'
attitudes and mode of life is to know what sort of illustrations to use,
what emphasis to put upon emotional material, what stress to lay on
practical application. In short, it is to know just how to "connect up."
It stimulates to a testing of values so that a teacher selects and
adapts his material to the needs of the boys and girls whom he teaches.

And, finally, as a key to interest, a teacher needs to know what the
"factors of interestingness" are. According to the findings of the
Public Speaking Department of the University of Chicago, they are summed
up in these seven terms:

The Vital
The Unusual
The Uncertain
The Concrete
The Similar
The Antagonistic
The Animate

This list becomes more and more helpful as it is pondered. It is
surprising to find how experience can be explained on the score of
interest by reference to these terms. Those things are vital which
pertain to life--which affect existence. Dangers are always interesting.
Catastrophies are fascinating. Just today all America is scanning the
newspapers throughout the country to find an explanation of the Wall
Street explosion. We shall not soon forget the feverish interest that
gripped the people of the world during our recent world wars.

When life is at stake, interest runs high. So it does when property,
liberty, and other sacred rights, so vital to life, are affected.
Anything vital enough to justify the publication of an "extra" may be
depended upon to grip the interest of men and women.

It is equally clear that a fascination attaches to things that are
unusual. New styles attract because of this fact. Let a man oddly
dressed walk along a thoroughfare--the passersby are interested
immediately. A "loud" hat or necktie, or other item of apparel, attracts
attention because it is out of the ordinary. Much of the interest and
delight in traveling lies in this element of the new and unusual which
the traveler encounters. The experiences of childhood which stand out
most prominently are usually those which at the time riveted themselves
to the mind through the interest of their extraordinariness.

Every reader knows the fascination of uncertainty. "How will the book
turn out?" prompts many a person to turn through hundreds of pages of a
novel. An accident is interesting not only because of its vital
sign