A twelve-year-old boy was told by his father that if he would make the body of
an automobile at his bench in the manual training school, the father would
purchase the running gear for it and give the machine to the boy. In order to
secure the coveted prize, the boy had to master the arithmetic necessary for
making the calculations, and the drawing necessary for making the plans to scale
before the teacher in manual training would allow him to take up the work of
construction. The boy had always lacked interest in both arithmetic and drawing,
and consequently was dull in them. Under the new incentive, however, he took
hold of them with such avidity that he soon surpassed all the remainder of the
class, and was able to make his calculations and drawings within a term. He
secured his automobile a few months later, and still retained his interest in
arithmetic and drawing.
Indirect Interest as a Motive.—Interest of the indirect type, which does not
attach to the process, but comes from some more or less distant end, most of us
find much less potent than interest which is immediate. This is especially true
unless the end be one of intense desire and not too distant. The assurance to a
boy that he must get his lessons well because he will need to be an educated man
ten years hence when he goes into business for himself does not compensate for
the lack of interest in the lessons of today.
Yet it is necessary in the economy of life that both children and adults should
learn to work under the incitement of indirect interests. Much of the work we do
is for an end which is more desirable than the work itself. It will always be
necessary to sacrifice present pleasure for future good. Ability to work
cheerfully for a somewhat distant end saves much of our work from becoming
drudgery. If interest is removed from both the process and the end, no
inducement is left to work except compulsion; and this, if continued, results in
the lowest type of effort. It puts a man on a level with the beast of burden, which
constantly shirks its work.
Indirect Interest Alone Insufficient.—Interest coming from an end instead of
inhering in the process may finally lead to an interest in the work itself; but if it
does not, the worker is in danger of being left a drudge at last. To be more than a
slave to his work one must ultimately find the work worth doing for its own
sake. The man who performs his work solely because he has a wife and babies at
home will never be an artist in his trade or profession; the student who masters a
subject only because he must know it for an examination is not developing the
traits of a scholar. The question of interest in the process makes the difference
between the one who works because he loves to work and the one who toils