religious.
Specialization is necessary, but specialization in our interests should rest upon a
broad field of fundamental interests, in order that the selection of the special line
may be an intelligent one, and that our specialty shall not prove a rut in which
we become so deeply buried that we are lost to the best in life.
A Proper Balance to Be Sought.—It behooves us, then, to find a proper
balance in cultivating our interests, making them neither too broad nor too
narrow. We should deliberately seek to discover those which are strong enough
to point the way to a life vocation, but this should not be done until we have had
an opportunity to become acquainted with various lines of interests. Otherwise
our decision in this important matter may be based merely on a whim.
We should also decide what interests we should cultivate for our own personal
development and happiness, and for the service we are to render in a sphere
outside our immediate vocation. We should consider avocations as well as
vocations. Whatever interests are selected should be carried to efficiency. Better
a reasonable number of carefully selected interests well developed and resulting
in efficiency than a multitude of interests which lead us into so many fields that
we can at best get but a smattering of each, and that by neglecting the things
which should mean the most to us. Our interests should lead us to live what
Wagner calls a "simple life," but not a narrow one.
5. INTEREST FUNDAMENTAL IN EDUCATION
Some educators have feared that in finding our occupations interesting, we shall
lose all power of effort and self-direction; that the will, not being called
sufficiently into requisition, must suffer from non-use; that we shall come to do
the interesting and agreeable things well enough, but fail before the disagreeable.
Interest Not Antagonistic to Effort.—The best development of the will does
not come through our being forced to do acts in which there is absolutely no
interest. Work done under compulsion never secures the full self in its
performance. It is done mechanically and usually under such a spirit of rebellion
on the part of the doer, that the advantage of such training may well be doubted.
Nor are we safe in assuming that tasks done without interest as the motive are
always performed under the direction of the will. It is far more likely that they
are done under some external compulsion, and that the will has, after all, but
very little to do with it. A boy may get an uninteresting lesson at school without