THE PHYSICS OF TOOTHPASTE TUBES AND SOAP BARS
My parents didn't disagree about how to squeeze the toothpaste tube. They agreed that the only reasonable place to squeeze it was at the bottom, not at the top, and not in the middle. And they spent a lot of time trying to get that message through to us kids. These were the days before toothpaste pumps and plastic tubes. These were the days when toothpaste tubes were made from tin and came with painted labels that flaked off as we rolled the tubes up.
There was one brand that would
have solved the problem very well: Vademacum, a pink, powdery, not quite minty toothpaste made in Sweden that came with its own roll-up key that fit on the bottom of the tube. But our family was Norwegian, not Swedish. And while nearly everyone in Minnesota in those days came from Scandinavian stock, there were differences, such as the difference between being Norwegian and being Swedish. I never knew if the fact that Vademacum came from Sweden was the reason we didn't use it, or if it was more expensive the other brands, or if Mom and Dad just didn't like the taste. Whatever the reason, instead of picking a technical solution, Mom and Dad kept trying a pedagogical approach: whenever they found evidence that small fingers had made an impact in the wrong place, they reminded us of the importance of squeezing from the bottom.
At about the same time, I was going through a particularly intense curiosity phase. I had at least two siblings by then, maybe even three. No matter the number, what was important was that the youngest one was an infant. And I was old enough to "get" to help Mom with the daily bathing ritual. Sometimes I even got to help change the diapers. In those days, changing diapers meant forcing thick diaper pins with pastel-colored plastic heads through multiple layers of thick cotton, without poking the baby in the process, right after having removed the pins from multiple layers of soggy thick cotton. The points of those pins were sharp enough to cause the baby to scream, but not sharp enough to get through the layers of cotton without some force, or some help.
The help came in the form of something that these days might be found in "Hints from Heloise." I watched Mom push the diaper pins into a bar of soap that served as a diaper pin cushion. The soap added just enough slick to the metal so the pins just slid through the diapers. Using the bar of soap probably aided in the disinfecting of the pins once removed from the soggy diapers, too.
But what was more amazing to me was that just by washing my hands with the bar of soap, the tiny holes in the soap bars disappeared.
And that observation made me wonder if I could work the same trick with other materials. I was somewhere between 5 and 7 so I hadn't been exposed to science classes that might have provided me with an understanding of the principles that explain the differences between the properties of solids, liquids, and gases. And I probably wouldn't have understood just which of those categories bar soap falls into anyway.
Since the soap pin cushion usually sat in the bathroom, on the edge of the tub, right next to the diaper pail, my eyes fell on items close to it for my experiments. And the first thing I put my hands on was the toothpaste tube. I pushed a pin into it in a couple of places and held the tube under running water and swished my hands around it a few times. Then I looked to see if the holes disappeared. I don't remember if I could see the holes or not because when I brushed my teeth, any observations I had earlier were replaced by the vision of tiny streams of toothpaste coming out of the holes I had created.
And while neither Mom nor Dad had ever told me I shouldn't push pins into toothpaste tubes, I knew I couldn't admit to them or anyone else that I had done that.
Later that day, Mom and Dad came to my younger brother and me and showed us what happened when they squeezed the toothpaste tube. I am quite certain the lack of surprise on my face gave away my role in this event, but my parents didn't accuse either of us or express anger or disappointment or any of the other negative responses I had expected. Instead, they pointed out that the phenomenon they were demonstrating was probably the result of us kids squeezing the tube from the top instead of from the bottom.
The result: I have never since squeezed a toothpaste tube anywhere but from the bottom.
There was one brand that would
have solved the problem very well: Vademacum, a pink, powdery, not quite minty toothpaste made in Sweden that came with its own roll-up key that fit on the bottom of the tube. But our family was Norwegian, not Swedish. And while nearly everyone in Minnesota in those days came from Scandinavian stock, there were differences, such as the difference between being Norwegian and being Swedish. I never knew if the fact that Vademacum came from Sweden was the reason we didn't use it, or if it was more expensive the other brands, or if Mom and Dad just didn't like the taste. Whatever the reason, instead of picking a technical solution, Mom and Dad kept trying a pedagogical approach: whenever they found evidence that small fingers had made an impact in the wrong place, they reminded us of the importance of squeezing from the bottom.
The help came in the form of something that these days might be found in "Hints from Heloise." I watched Mom push the diaper pins into a bar of soap that served as a diaper pin cushion. The soap added just enough slick to the metal so the pins just slid through the diapers. Using the bar of soap probably aided in the disinfecting of the pins once removed from the soggy diapers, too.
But what was more amazing to me was that just by washing my hands with the bar of soap, the tiny holes in the soap bars disappeared.
And that observation made me wonder if I could work the same trick with other materials. I was somewhere between 5 and 7 so I hadn't been exposed to science classes that might have provided me with an understanding of the principles that explain the differences between the properties of solids, liquids, and gases. And I probably wouldn't have understood just which of those categories bar soap falls into anyway.
Since the soap pin cushion usually sat in the bathroom, on the edge of the tub, right next to the diaper pail, my eyes fell on items close to it for my experiments. And the first thing I put my hands on was the toothpaste tube. I pushed a pin into it in a couple of places and held the tube under running water and swished my hands around it a few times. Then I looked to see if the holes disappeared. I don't remember if I could see the holes or not because when I brushed my teeth, any observations I had earlier were replaced by the vision of tiny streams of toothpaste coming out of the holes I had created.
And while neither Mom nor Dad had ever told me I shouldn't push pins into toothpaste tubes, I knew I couldn't admit to them or anyone else that I had done that.
Later that day, Mom and Dad came to my younger brother and me and showed us what happened when they squeezed the toothpaste tube. I am quite certain the lack of surprise on my face gave away my role in this event, but my parents didn't accuse either of us or express anger or disappointment or any of the other negative responses I had expected. Instead, they pointed out that the phenomenon they were demonstrating was probably the result of us kids squeezing the tube from the top instead of from the bottom.
The result: I have never since squeezed a toothpaste tube anywhere but from the bottom.
The Lesson
Wise parents don't take every opportunity to point out how much smarter they are than their children.
Sometimes cutting a child some slack gets better resuts than catching the child doing something against "the rules" and passing out punishment.
Sometimes cutting a child some slack gets better resuts than catching the child doing something against "the rules" and passing out punishment.
How I Have Used This Lesson In Life
Just as it was more effective for my parents to use the experience to make a point they had not succeeded in making by other means, sometimes it is more effective for a supervisor to praise an employee, or a teacher to praise a student, for doing something right, even if it isn't clear the employee or student was involved in the accomplishment. The result may be a turnaround in the employee's or student's motivation.
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