90 Materials and Their Handling 



I do not know how many times the man had 

 traveled in the trolley and had seen the same 

 thing occur; but he had no curiosity about it, IR 

 had no interest in it, and consequently he had no 

 knowledge of it. The unfortunate part of it was 

 that instead of admitting he did not know, he was 

 passing the results of his lack of curiosity on to 

 the boy as an answer to his question. 



Perhaps it is for this reason that we fail to 

 understand many things about human beings. We 

 are so familiar with their actions, and they are so 

 much a part of our associations from the time we 

 are born, that we lose interest and our curiosity 

 is dull. Of course, then, we do not learn very 

 much. In addition to that, not many of our 

 teachers, whether they are parents or teachers in 

 the school or friends, will admit that they do not 

 know human nature; so they answer our questions 

 like the father on the trolley car, with an answer 

 that is no explanation at all. 



One of the big jobs which you have is to under- 

 stand your workmen. This will be accomplished 

 if you admit the things that you do not know 

 about men and their reactions and then go ahead 

 to get all the knowledge you can. It will be neces- 

 sary for you to question carefully and to analyze 

 the answers, because so many of them are founded 

 upon opinions without knowledge or upon preju- 

 dice without examination. 



