Those responsible for teaching young people have resorted to a variety of means to make their pupils learn. The earliest of these was the threat of punishment. This meant that the pupil who was slow, careless or inattentive risked either physical chastisement or the loss of some expected privilege. Learning was thus associated with fear. At a later period, pupils were encouraged to learn in the hope of some kind of reward. This often took the form of marks awarded for work done and sometimes of prizes given at the end of the year to the best scholar. Such a system appealed to the competitive spirit, but was just as depressing as the older system for the slow child. In the nineteenth century sprang up a new type of teacher, convinced that learning was worthwhile for its own sake and that the young pupil’s principal stimulus should neither be anxiety to avoid a penalty nor ambition to win a reward, but sheer desire to learn. Interest, direct or indirect, became the keyword of instruction.

 

The system based on rewards satisfied all except:

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