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This week's LabZone activity
Jan. 5, 2005
Take the Needle-and-Thread Test
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck dresses up as a girl so he can sneak into St. Petersburg to gather news without being recognized. A new villager named Judith Loftus invites him into her home and talks to him for a while but soon guesses that Huck is actually a boy. She secretly puts him to a few tests to learn if she is right. One of her tests is asking Huck to thread a needle for her. Huck holds a piece of thread steady and pushes a needle toward it. Mrs. Loftus afterward tells him that a real girl would do the opposite: hold the needle steady and push the thread toward it.
Do males and females really thread needles differently? Mark Twain must not have been sure himself. When the character Miles Hendon threads a needle in The Prince and the Pauper, he does it in a way exactly opposite to the way that Huck does it in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You be the judge.
What You need
Adult supervision recommended
- Needle (preferably one with a large hole and a dull point
- Piece of thread that will fit the needle's hole
- Lined paper
- Pencil or pen
Draw four columns on a sheet of lined paper: 1 wide column on the left and 5 narrow columns on the right. Label the first column "Name," the second column "Male/Female," the third column "Sewing Experience," the fourth column "Moves Thread," and the fifth column "Moves Needle."
Without explaining what you are trying to learn, take the needle and thread to both male and female friends and relatives, one at a time. (Do not give the needle to young children.) Ask each person to help you by threading the needle. Watch carefully to see whether the person moves the thread or the needle. Record your findings on the paper, indicating the person's gender in the second column and sewing experience. ("none," "some," or "a lot") in the third column. Summarize your findings at the bottom of the paper, indicating how many males and females move the thread, and how many move the needle. Do men and women actually thread needles differently? Or did Mark Twain make up the whole idea? Is there a difference between experienced and inexperienced sewers?
Reprinted with permission from Mark Twain for Kids: His Life and Times, 21 Activities by R. Kent Rasmussen. Published by Chicago Review Press, distributed by Independent Publishers Group (www.ipgbook.com). Copyright © 2004 by R. Kent Rasmussen.
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