Learning by doing

(Adapted from Marion D. Hanks, The Gift of Self [1974], 151-53.)
 

Learning by doing is something we all can do, no matter how much formal education we have. One woman, for example, once complained to Dr. Louis Agassiz, a distinguished scientist, that she had never really had a chance to learn. She told him that she and her sister ran a boarding house and that she did not have time for anything else. He asked what type of work she did, and she replied:

" 'I skin potatoes and chop onions.'

"He asked, 'Madam, where do you sit during these interesting but homely duties?'

" 'On the bottom step of the kitchen stairs.'

" 'Where do your feet rest?'

" 'On the glazed brick.'

" 'What is glazed brick?'

" 'I don't know, sir.'

"He said, 'How long have you been sitting there?'

" 'Fifteen years.'

" 'Madam, here is my personal card,' said Dr. Agassiz. 'Would you kindly write me a letter concerning the nature of a glazed brick?' "

She took him seriously. She looked up "brick" in the dictionary but felt that the definition was too simple to send to a famous scientist. So she looked in the encyclopedia. As she read about bricks, she came to words that she did not understand. So she looked them up. And then, because she really became interested in what she was learning, she visited a brickyard. When she finished her studies, she sat down and wrote Dr. Agassiz a 36-page letter on the subject of glazed brick.

Back came a letter from Dr. Agassiz informing her that with just a few minor changes he had published her letter and was sending her $250. At the bottom of the letter he asked, "What was under those bricks?"

She found ants under the bricks, so she began to study ants. She found there were between 800 and 2,500 different kinds. She became fascinated by the many varieties of ants and how and where they lived. After wide reading and careful study, she wrote 360 pages on the subject to Dr. Agassiz. He published it as a book and sent her more money.

With the money she had received she went to visit all the lands of her dreams.