The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1928-10-20
Investigating a Clock With a
Can Opener
An Editorial About Che Uses Of Curiosity

LITTLE how looks M at his father while he holds behind
n his back alarm clock he has just borrowed
from the kitchen
Papa he is saying do you know where find the
can-opener?"
Of course you know boy going to do with that
clock when he can-opener You readily imagine
his futile efforts to get it open with pOcketknife ana
screwdriver and possibly ckhamer Yon can picture
his despair when none implements successful and
his JOY whsn the idea him that canopener would
enable to probe Of the cogwheeled mystery and
learn himself Just why the clock licked off the
little marked the passing Of the long hours with
its narrow hands.
Certain fathers reading foregoing anecdOte viii grit
their and reflect that THEIR begin carving the
family clocks there will be hahour Of stern retrbuton
Many mothers-and mothers ought understand children
better-w throw up their hands in dismay thinking what
terribly destructive little demons children In every
family there is punctured drum broken music box
dsembowelled doll testify curiosity which people who
do not understand nature call wanton desucvene
There are few children grown people, who things
pieces simply the purpose Of destroying something The
laws Of nature which must obey whether we want TO Or
provide for constant demolition and reconstruction
And those who would aid in reconstruction wisely and
add to the progress Of the world must have hand
the demolition NO NEW THING CAN BE DONE WITHOUT
ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE or OLD THINGS TO IMPROVE
UPON THEM.
By the they five years old little boys and
girls discover that they intensely curious They want %
things The curiosity in them just hunger Is
them for the purpose Of development Because they
hungry they regularly to their meals that their bodies
Because thew are curious they ask mutudes Of questions
and better STILL start original investigations that their minds
may be fed
upon finding it, seriously impair the useues Of seventy
alarm clock But he would know something about clocks
and machinery.
He would discover that coled steel spring drove
cogwheel which acted upon other cogwhees and through them
and fro and checking off the minutes giving regularity to the
revolution of the hands
restore the clock to its original condition Watch any child
destroys things you will observe that he tries still
harder to put them together again. and deeply distressed
when he finds that he cannot do So
Please do not understand us as avoring the use Of alarm
for juvenile vsectOn There other ways crafty
chdrens curiosity besides permitting them destroy useful
things
But do upon parents encourage curiosity in their
chrento all of their questions that be answered
out of human intelligence and not to believe that they
destined for dynamters because they
fond of looking into drums and proddng the inside of the
piano with screwdrivers.
As curiosity SO will his usefulness in the world
be- The smug self satisfied gentleman who for nothing
beyond his of getting rich and interest himself
in the building of the house the the wiring Of
the electric railroad is Of about much mud
turtle which said to be utterly devoid Of curiosity
It is finding things OUT makes the human
up toward better things-more intelligence, comfort
more happiness.
Watt was curious about the steam that came from his
mothers kettle Twentieth Century Limited
Of the results Of his gratifying that curiosity He smashed the
tea kettle Of and his mother candazed denouncg
him for worthless vanda But today between
New York and Chicago in twenty hours
Calico cOpernicus Columbus Fulton Edison-al have
been led by intelligent curiosity to do great things for their
teow-men
The curiosity of the modern scientist will inspire him to
devote years of long, patient study find apparently
small bit of information That kind curiosity has provided
for smallpox and dphtheria has made operations
painless and slowly discriminating consumption and cholera
| and yellow fever from the face of the earth.
We need not hold the bump Of destructivenes in such
iS
of inward and useful curiosity and child gifted with
enough of that quality reasonably get along
world without assistance