spencer] diplomacy OF THE GOOD TEACHER 23 



deprivation and been made to look prim. Though early results 

 may be somewhat slattern, praise the effort which produced them 

 and the child will be encouraged to try again. Remember the 

 child's first footsteps. You were proud of the attempt and 

 encouraged frequent repetition until at last the firm and confident 

 step was acquired. 



After pro\riding occupation and stimulation by your approach, 

 next incite wonder. Nothing can be more true than, "Knowledge 

 begins with Wonder." By wonder, I mean a keen, active interest. 

 You then have a hungry mind and a hungry mind is easily fed with 

 information that is fully digested. Children and a comparatively 

 large number of grown people have no relish for acquiring facts 

 for some future use. They do not care to put knowledge into cold 

 storage in the expectation of some coming time when it may be 

 handy to have. If you have some mental wares you wish them to 

 • take off your hands, create a problem where those people can use 

 your facts and your goods will be in demand. 



I lately read an accoimt of an American shoe merchant or manu- 

 facturer who wrote our Consul in a tropical town to know if there 

 were many shoe stores in the town where he represented American 

 interest. The Consul wrote back "Not a blessed shoe store in the 

 whole town." He omitted to add that the natives had been bare- 

 foot since a thousand years before Coltmibus discovered this 

 America. 



The enterprising Yankee sent a large consignment and an agent 

 to dispose of them. The ag^nt, on his arrival, was not long in 

 seeing that the reason no shoes were sold was because the popula- 

 tion did not feel the need of them. The agent, instead of shipping 

 the stock back from whence it came, sent a cablegram ordering a 

 hundred bales of cockleburs to be shipped by the next steamer. 

 On arrival, those cockleburs were clandestinely scattered in places 

 where the bare feet trod the most, with the result that the burrs 

 sown not only tortured the pedestrians but grew a crop to continue 

 the misery. Then for the first time, the natives felt the need of 

 shoes and the Yankee established a fine trade. A desire for knowl- 

 edge can be created after the same method. In these three things, 

 occupation, sympathy and wonder, you have the development of 

 learning by doing. 



