When my father died, I received several books from his library. One is a small book for fourth grade students. It is filled with short stories and poems by various authors. Most of its stories encourage and illustrate high moral values. In other words, it teaches character.
I was reading one of those little stories, and was impressed at how simply its author tempted children toward a particular character trait.
Character chooses thoroughness over speed, he seemed to say. He told of a young boy who was given a task to do. It was a simple chore. He just had to gather up stones that had been raked into piles. With a shovel, he was to place the stones in a wheelbarrow and take them away from the area being cleared. It wouldn’t take long. Someone else had raked up the piles. He just had to fill the wheelbarrow, push it to the big pile, and dump it.
Character chooses thoroughness over speed, however. The boy, young as he was, had learned this. Better yet, he had embraced thoroughness and made it his own. Another boy might have shoveled each pile hastily into the wheelbarrow, and hurried away. He might never have looked to see if stones fell from his shovel. He might not have cared if stones spilled from the wheelbarrow. His task was only to remove the piles, and since no one would have cared if a stone was dropped here and there, he might not have cared.
But this boy cared. This boy took time with each pile. He made sure every stone in the pile was gathered into the wheelbarrow. Then he looked around to be sure the man with the rake had not missed any stones. He walked quickly around the area of each pile, and when his sharp eyes picked out stones, he gathered them and carried them back to the wheelbarrow. The person who had hired the boy urged him to leave the scattered stones behind. The boy said nothing to this, but continued to gather stray stones.
Character chooses thoroughness over speed. Do you know that? Do you believe it? As an employer, do you encourage your employees to be thorough in their work, or simply to hurry and get it done? Would you rather hire the thorough boy or the speedy boy? If you are an employee, do you give your employer thoroughness or speed? It’s wonderful when the two can be combined, but if one must be sacrificed, which would it be?
Children can and should learn the wonderful quality of thoroughness. Thoroughness is an important part of “doing what’s right”, as the little cat sings in Christopher Cat’s Character Club. Children should learn that it’s much better to do their homework thoroughly than to get it done quickly. Teachers and parents should reward thoroughness over speed. If the boys and girls in your class hear the word “quickly” more than they hear “carefully”, you may want to make some changes. If you find yourself telling your son and daughter to “hurry” more often than you tell them to “do it well”, you may want to reconsider.
Character chooses thoroughness over speed in most situations.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?