Interest is developed as one is excited by the possibility of pleasurable activity. It is essential that every educational event begins with romance. Even here, however, discipline is present in the cutting off of other possible romances. As the freshness of romance wears away, a new craving grows. The emphasis now shifts to discipline, as one learns the right ways and the wrong ways to proceed and discovers the truths to be learned.
Freedom here is the positive acceptance of the newly discovered truths.
Whitehead notes that the best discipline is self-discipline, and that this can only be acquired by a wide use of freedom. This stage again places emphasis on freedom, as one looks for ways to use one's knowledge. But there is also discipline. The focus shifts to the future, as the educational event contributes its datum to subsequent events. An education which does not begin by evoking initiative and end by encouraging it must be wrong.