Article April 3, 1937 Issue

Practice Makes Perfect

[Written Especially for Young People]

VERA CROSS

A young student of Christian Science was given the task of running off envelopes on the multigraph. She was told to feed them through by hand. After running one boxful through she decided that it would be quicker to use the electric power to feed the envelopes. She had never used the power, but had often watched an experienced operator doing so, and thought it looked easy. Thus it was disappointing to her to find that the first half of her second box was ruined because of an offset on the platen, which caused printing on both sides of the envelope. Instead of saving time she lost if for she had to stop and clean the platen before she could run the rest through by hand. In addition, there was considerable waste, for the envelopes fed with the power had to be discarded as "spoils."

This served as a useful lession to the student. She realized that when those machines were used by someone who possessed intelligent understanding of their action through experience or practice, that one was able to produce perfect work. It was not the fault of the machine that those envelopes were spoiled, nor was it the fault of the electric power running the machine. The spoilage was due to the student's lack of understanding and practice.

The next day the student found she had some free time. So she practiced feeding the spoiled envelopes with the power until she gained a measure of efficiency. She discovered that when she learned how to use the machine, the longer she fed the easier it became to do the work the correct way.

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