George hesitated a moment, then his story came out in a rush. “Well, at home they all were talking about your letters, and my brother Curt said that he bet they were from that fellow in Carlinville that he saw you with one day. And he dared me to look at the envelope and see what the postmark was. He said he’d let me drive the bay colt if I would.” “Well, you tell your brother Curt that he ought to be ashamed of himself to set you at such tricks. You needn’t stay in this afternoon, George. But next time, remember, keep your hands off what doesn’t belong to you.” CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT Let each manifestation of curiosity be the means of leading pupils to a broader life. When she found Ollie garbed in the sweater, Miss Freeman might have said: “Would you like me to tell you where this sweater came from, and what I saw when I wore it last summer in Estes Park? There are so many stories connected with it—just as there are about Ollie’s silk hair-ribbon. Let us hang it over this chair while we’re talking about it; I’m always very careful never to handle it unless my hands are clean, and always to keep it on a hanger lest it lose its shape.” In this way the children’s healthy curiosity about strange and pretty things is satisfied, their knowledge increased, and some ideas on the proper care of clothing inculcated. The lesson about silk-worms and spinning and weaving processes is twice as vivid, therefore twice as well learned, when it bears on the pretty silk sweater before them, as it would be when read in the course from a book. The curiosity about the letter was of a kind which needs to be inhibited, but Miss Freeman should have inquired into his motives before, not after punishing George. Even then, perhaps, he deserved a punishment of some sort, but it would have been given with the knowledge that the fault was really his brother’s. The incident gave the teacher a splendid chance to teach a lesson in the ethics of property-treatment. COMMENTS In this case the elder brother’s curiosity was the outgrowth of a healthy love of life and romance which his too narrow life was starving into a desire to feed upon the personal affairs of the teacher. Village gossip grows from just this condition—natural interest in the picturesque elements of life, which the too restricted life of a small community bound by many prejudices and traditions forces into unwholesome channels. Miss Freeman’s pupils shared the interest of their elders in the attractive teacher’s clothes, movements, and half-revealed romance, besides having their own healthy curiosity in one whose life was so much broader and richer than their own. This curiosity gave the teacher a thousand chances to teach manners, facts, and self-control to her boys and girls, but she did not know how to utilize them. ILLUSTRATION 1 (THIRD GRADE)