Value for Monday of Week 19 in the season of Growth

Being Interested

Beyond mere willingness is interest, the emotional component of level-two responsibility in all our relations. 

  • Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. [attributed to Henry Miller]
  • Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you. [attributed to Pericles, apparently falsely]
  • I am interested in the future because I expect to spend the rest of my life in the future.. [Charles Kettering]

Taking an interest is an essential building block to learning and to achievement in virtually every endeavor. A competent worker usually takes an interest in her work. A good student usually takes an interest in his studies. A high level of interest can lead to great achievements in science, the arts, or a trade. At level 2, being interested refers to interest as an emotional component of competence. It is a building block of a sense of purpose. Active, playful learning is useful in generating interest.

Curiosity can be seen as a predicate to taking an interest. Curiosity may be defined as “an active feeling (more specifically a first, fleeting feeling) and a child-like emotion that often involves a strong urge to think actively and differently, whereas interest was described as stable and sustainable feeling, which is characterized as involved engagement and personal preferences (e.g., hobbies).” Distinctions like these reflect the richness of our language; and our capacity for making distinctions, and appreciating differences between them. Values like this one apply to various kinds of relationships. We can be interested in science, and also in people. When we see people as part of the world, we recognize that the categories we imagine are exactly that: products of our minds, as are all of our distinctions.

As we examine the emotional, intellectual, and active components of obligation, we will see that the rudimentary starting points of the first stage (willingness, rationality and effort) have been ingrained, and once ingrained have been replaced by corresponding processes that reflect a deeper level of engagement. The emotional component is interest in the subject matter.

Real

True Narratives

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Open the links for lists of books that invite children to learn about the world.

“. . . more than just prolific, Prose is interested — in everyone and everything, from Anne Frank to Caravaggio to gluttony.

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

To spark and assess their interest in playing a musical instrument, many school districts in the United States begin young children on the recorder, a wind instrument popular during the Baroque era. Also known as the Blockflöte (block flute) in German, flûte à bec (beaked flute) in French, flauto dolce (sweet flute) in Italian, and flauto de pico (beaked flute) in Spanish, the instrument in its several forms is contrasted from the more commonly played transverse flute, which is held off to the side, as opposed to the recorder, which the player holds facing forward. As with the clarinet, oboe and saxophone, the mouth is placed around the embouchure (wind opening), but unlike those other woodwind instruments, the recorder has no reed. This makes it easier to produce a sound, and therefore makes it a suitable instrument for beginners. The instrument was in vogue during the early 1700s, as illustrated by this eight-CD set from Michael Schneider, and this album from Stefan Temming. The links above and below are to great compositions for the instrument, performed by master musicians. As with all music, their art began with their taking an interest.

François D’Agincour’s works for harpsichord are workmanlike baroque compositions that convey the feeling of taking an interest in something. 

Albums:

Music: songs and other short pieces

Songs:

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

Films about people who had difficulty being interested:

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