9. MOTIVATION AS RELATED TO THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.
It has been remarked in this chapter, that the “crucial fact” serves to stir the mind of the natural born discoverer to an activity raised to the nth power of effectiveness. Naturally, the intent of such activity is to solve the mysteries which the crucial fact may suggest. This passion of the mind to “know more about it” is appropriately termed “the mental urge.” From the viewpoint of the pedagogue, the “mental urge” is simply an intrinsic interest in the situation at hand; an interest born of an innate or acquired passion to know the truth.
With the average child, the “mental urge” is strong only when the situations appeal to some immediate need or vital experience. The attempt to make the school work concrete and vital; to make it answer the child’s natural curiosities and real necessities, is dignified with the name “motivation.” It is obvious that this is a new term for an old condition. To motivate the work, means to give to it an attractiveness which any situation might have for the true born discoverer and inventor. If we would use the discoverer’s method successfully, we must learn the art of motivating the work. This may be accomplished by appealing to the play instincts, to the business instincts, and to the vital interests of every day life.