3.11.1 Interest Should Be Inherent in The Lesson Taught

“Oh, that’s all right,” says one. “It is easy enough to talk about interest, and it’s easy to be interesting if you can choose anything you like to amuse a class. But if you have to teach them theology, and especially some of the dry lessons that are outlined for us, I don’t see how we can be expected to make our work interesting.”

Of course, there is some point to such an objection. Having been asked to teach the lesson, we cannot defend the practice of bringing in all kinds of material just because it is funny.

And, of course, it is true, too, that some lesson outlines upon first thought do appear rather forbidding. But it is equally true that there is a path of interest through the most unpromising material, though that path does not always run alongside the teacher’s highroad of ease and unconcern. A false notion of interest is that it denotes mere amusement—that it is something aside from serious and sober thought.

The writer recalls visiting a class taught by a person holding such a notion. Having given his lesson but little thought he apologized for its lack of interest by saying, “Now, boys and girls, if you will just be quiet while we go over the lesson, even though it isn’t very interesting, I’ll read you our next chapter of Huckleberry Finn.”

And yet the lesson, hurried over, with a little intensive study could have been made as fascinating as the reading of Huckleberry Finn and notably more profitable.

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