Let each manifestation of curiosity be the means of leading pupils to a
broader life. When she found Ollie garbed in the sweater, Miss Freeman
might have said: “Would you like me to tell you where this sweater came
from, and what I saw when I wore it last summer in Estes Park? There are
so many stories connected with it—just as there are about Ollie’s silk
hair-ribbon. Let us hang it over this chair while we’re talking about
it; I’m always very careful never to handle it unless my hands are
clean, and always to keep it on a hanger lest it lose its shape.”
In this way the children’s healthy curiosity about strange and pretty
things is satisfied, their knowledge increased, and some ideas on the
proper care of clothing inculcated. The lesson about silk-worms and
spinning and weaving processes is twice as vivid, therefore twice as
well learned, when it bears on the pretty silk sweater before them, as
it would be when read in the course from a book.
The curiosity about the letter was of a kind which needs to be
inhibited, but Miss Freeman should have inquired into his motives
before, not after punishing George. Even then, perhaps, he deserved a
punishment of some sort, but it would have been given with the knowledge
that the fault was really his brother’s. The incident gave the teacher a
splendid chance to teach a lesson in the ethics of property-treatment.