Willingness to Learn by MRS. D. A. FITCH

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 20, 1916

Willingness to Learn

By MRS. D. A. FITCH

MRS. D. A. FITCH

To gain real knowledge one must have not only a willingness but an earnest desire to learn. We may find teachers in our friends and in conditions about us, but sometimes we fail to gain the instruction intended for our good. Pride often hinders us from acknowledging our ignorance; and when this trait becomes too marked, our friends will let us alone, to learn by our own experience, when we might have had the benefit of theirs.

With all the opportunities for gaining knowledge, ignorance is no excuse for failure. One may learn by asking for information, and this sometimes from those whom he is wont to look upon as his inferiors. Thinking is another good way to learn. It is related of Frederick Douglass that in his slave days he made some trifling change in the machinery of the cotton-gin he was operating. When chided by his master, he excused himself by saying, “I thought it would work better.” His master was angry. “Thought!” he exclaimed, “what right have you to think?” We pity the slave, but often we allow our minds to atrophy until we are in veritable bondage.

Observation is another excellent teacher. Had Angie observed that one reason that buttons tear out, taking a piece of the cloth with them, is that the thread is drawn too tightly, not leaving sufficient room for the play of the button-hole between the cloth and the button, she would not have lost so many buttons before learning the better way. Had Mrs. Walters taken the word of another in regard to the scientific method of cooking beans and other legumes, she would have found that they are really better when started at a slow heat, and during the entire process of cooking kept below a violent boiling point. Had my mother understood that much of the flavor and nutriment escapes into the water in which legumes are cooked, I should have been taught to use as small an amount of water as possible, and to save whatever remained, to be used in soups and gravies.

If busy housekeepers who are anxious to improve their methods of work knew that they could obtain bulletins treating on many subjects of interest to the home maker by simply sending a request to the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, D. C., many would doubtless avail themselves of this opportunity for information.

Santurce, Porto Rico.