PEDAGOGICAL 
67 
class ideas I would not be guilty of 
having them lose good material by run- 
ning it into a creaky and badly operated 
expression machine. Diffidence, awk- 
wardness, lack of grace, blushing self- 
consciousness are never the lack of 
mental efficiency. For grace and nat- 
uralness of manner it would be hard to 
find anyone in all the world that can 
excel an idiot. He does not know 
enough to be self-conscious. He is lit- 
erally a cabbage head of self-expression. 
“But I can’t get her to express her- 
self.” exclaims the teacher. Nor could 
you get her to run a wheelbarrow load 
of pig iron. Perhaps it is not lack of 
ideas. It may be a case of piling on too 
big a load. Let us first of all practise 
running the empty wheelbarrow and 
learn to do it gracefully, then we may 
gradually load it until we reach the 
limit of wheelbarrow transportation. 
To sum up. What is the most valu- 
able possession of every human being? 
Personality- Did you ever know of 
anyone who wished to change himself, 
to be somebody else? Working there- 
fore along the line of least resistance 
and best value, the greatest thing that 
a human being can do, as Ruskin has 
said in other words, is: “To see and to 
think and to tell.” When these three 
points of life are well filled, the heights 
of happiness have been reached. There 
is nothing greater that any human be- 
ing can do. To see the glorious, to 
think logically about it, to tell effective- 
ly will make a heaven of any environ- 
ment. 
ANNOUNCEMENT. 
These two articles 
“The Girl's Self-Expression” 
“The Grace of Naturalness” 
suggest and somewhat outline what I 
am offering in new lectures and class- 
room instruction for Teachers’ Insti- 
tutes, Women’s Clubs, Schools for 
Girls, Camps for Girls, etc. 
Address for further particulars: 
Edward F. Bigelow, 
Sound Beach, 
ArcAdiA: Connecticut. 
Copyright Life PublLhirg 
Company. 
Reprinted by courtesy of “Life.” 
.A NEGLECTED VOLUME 
