Short guide to getting interested in studying

SCHOOL/ Short guide to getting interested in studying Luigi Ballerini Interest is a term, or an issue, that comes up often in the Education section of this newspaper. It is an issue that is close to my heart, if only because of the frequency with which the question is raised by people who come to see me: I’m bored, say the students, he’s not interested, complain the parents. Usually this last becomes even more radical and defining: he’s not interested in anything! I am tempted to discuss the adult’s version, which is so often corrupted by the failure to recognize objective reality. There is no young person who is not interested in anything, unless he is sliding into a catatonic state. Usually the problem is that his interests are different from the ones we have chosen, the ones that we desire for him. This is an issue because many adults have an ideal image of a child in their head, and thus are incapable of looking at the real child and starting from him, perhaps from his one interest that we should never scorn or discourage, as long as it is not damaging, but that we should respect for its very existence. In this context, I would like to comment on the theme in a broader perspective. I would like to observe how the issue of interests is usually treated, with an error by both the adults and the children. In fact, the error is committed by the adults first. We all live under the strange impression that interest is self-generated. That it is something indefinite, a type of shudder of excitement in the soul that, working from the inside, urges us to be capable of will, undertaking and dedication toward a goal or on a certain path. There are those who claim that it is more of a feeling, an emotion or internal thrill, and those who instead are on the rational side, and consider interest a decision that we must make. The common error rests in thinking that interest comes first and then (almost mechanically), the undertaking of the object, of which school work is only one of the possibilities, though the one that we are usually most fixed on. Instead, interest is not self-generating. It is not born by biogenesis or spontaneous generation. Interest is always provoked, or stimulated, by reality. And here is how we can help our kids. It’s not that because you are interested in history, you start to study it, but that you will be interested in history once you start to study it. Fascination with the subject becomes clear when it allows you to make connections, to understand present events, and to arouse new ideas. Of course, nothing here is automatic. There will still be areas that are of less interest, less fascination, but that is according to your judgment, not a preconception. We consider that the more healthy a kid is, the more likely he is to be interested in everything. When a kid is apathetic (and we must never resign ourselves to it by saying that it is a necessary evil of the age group without looking for the real reasons) action is needed in the form of prompting: get to work! Even if it does not seem to have to do with you right away. Then you’ll see… The invitation is not for generic obedience or duty, but so that the kid can test whether or not there is something to gain, a supplement for him. The concept of interest, for me personally, is like that of a bank account holder, who puts something in, his investment, to get something more out of it. In some cases—and we know that this is also true of some financial investments—the something more is unforeseeable and unpredictable beforehand. I have just recently begun to appreciate a silly expression that before that I used in its negative connotation: desire to study, pounce on me! I recently discovered how this could be the omen of a healthy kid because that is really how it happens. The desire to study (but also the desire to work, to love, to be social, to watch a movie, etc.) pounces on us at the beginning. It comes from outside, and represents an invitation that reality—with everything that makes it up—gives us. It is not born from within, from my own consistent or obstinate effort. Of course, it is up to me to follow up on this interest, but in that case my interest—from which my undertaking and dedication derive—becomes a desire to repeat a satisfying experience of personal gain. Therefore, to say I’m interested is rarely a starting point. It is already a success because it is already happening. And usually by invitation, whether for a thirteen year old or a fifty year old. www.ilsussidiario.net