I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

Roosevelt frames curiosity as the foundational capacity behind learning, resilience, and civic maturity. By imagining a “fairy godmother” gift at birth, she suggests that while talents and advantages vary, an inquisitive mind can be cultivated and can compensate for many deficits. Curiosity here is not mere nosiness but an active, lifelong openness to experience—asking questions, seeking evidence, and revising one’s views. In Roosevelt’s broader public ethos (education, democratic participation, and international understanding), curiosity becomes a moral and practical virtue: it counters fear of difference, combats complacency, and keeps individuals growing beyond childhood into responsible adulthood.