The Lesson: Main Ideas

Helpful people can come across as condescending.

While Miss Moore may have good intentions, her teaching style blinds Sylvia to the heart of her lesson. Miss Moore does a poor job of connecting to the kids because she is perceived as talking down to them. For instance, she asks early on in the story if they know what money is, and Sylvia is so offended by Miss Moore's tone that she does not even register the underlying message. Furthermore, when Miss Moore calls their neighborhood “the slums,” it provokes another defensive reaction from Sylvia, and the fact that Miss Moore walks away before Sylvia can challenge her is indicative of a wider problem with Miss Moore’s messaging—that is, she asks questions but doesn’t answer them, and she imparts wisdom but doesn’t always leave room for follow-up. Sylvia often comments on the different ways Miss Moore speaks and what her tones imply. "The voice she uses at the museum" gives the impression that Sylvia finds Miss Moore stiff and boring, and believes she is speaking to them performatively. Miss Moore smiles "like she tellin a grown-up joke that never turns out to be funny," implying that she delivers information in a self-aggrandizing way, and that her expectation of the children’s reactions to her lessons borders on being similarly self-congratulatory.

It’s suggested that Miss Moore cares more about being important and appreciated than she does about speaking to her listeners in a way that will resonate. From Sylvia's perspective, Miss Moore appears to be showing them luxuries they can't afford, but not offering them concrete information as to how they might change things. In the end, Miss Moore’s lessons have indeed taken root in the children—Sugar, for instance, recognizes the unfairness of economic inequality and even verbalizes it—but for Sylvia, the resentment she feels towards Miss Moore presents a barrier. That Sylvia would rather steal money from other kids suggests it makes her feel powerful rather than hopeless, as Miss Moore's lessons sometimes make her feel.

Kids learn more from what adults do than what they say.

The kids are skeptical of Miss Moore's lessons not just because she talks down to them, but because her appearance, demeanor, and style are unfamiliar to them. An educated Black woman is contrary to what Sylvia and Sugar expect; they don’t know anyone else who looks and acts like her. When people in the neighborhood make fun of Miss Moore behind her back, it gives Sylvia the impression that a college education, and the overall formality with which Miss Moore carries herself, aren’t admirable qualities. Moreover, Sylvia has already observed the way she and her cousins get dropped off at her Aunt Gretchen's house, and so she assumes the trips with Miss Moore are another instance of being pawned off onto someone else. As a result, Sylvia and the kids at first conclude Miss Moore is not someone to take seriously. They arrive at this notion not based on what they have been told, necessarily, but by observing the behavior of other adults and taking their cues from them.

It seems there is little Miss Moore can say to convince Sylvia of anything. Sylvia even admits that Miss Moore always had very little chance of winning her over. Yet Sylvia does learn and benefit from Miss Moore as is evidenced in Sylvia’s use of surly, a "Miss Moore word.” This shows that Miss Moore’s style of teaching is working, albeit subtly. More importantly, Miss Moore understands that actions speak louder than words. She does not lecture the children, instead preferring to expose them to the world outside their neighborhood and allow them to draw conclusions about what they see. Sylvia especially is a child who needs to observe adults behaving in the real world in order to learn from them. By the end of the story, it is clear that Miss Moore’s “modeling and showing” style of teaching is beginning to have a profound impact on Sylvia, despite Sylvia’s resistance and the barrier inherent in Miss Moore’s delivery of her lessons.

It's difficult to learn when your basic needs aren't being met.

From the kids' perspective, the trip to the toy store is not enjoyable. The weather is hot and they could be swimming at the community pool, but instead they must dress up in itchy clothes to learn lessons they really don't understand from a woman their parents mock. From the very beginning, the kids are hot, uncomfortable, bored, hungry, and unexcited, presenting an environment not exactly conducive to learning life lessons. The trip does, however, give the children an opportunity to express the ways in which it’s also difficult to learn while in school. The paperweight conversation reveals that few of the children would ever need such a thing, because they don’t have desks at home, nor do they use their desks at school to do work. The cost of the sailboat reveals that the kids don’t have enough money for food, meaning they must be routinely hungry. The $35 birthday clown, and Sylvia’s furious internal monologue, reveal there is much the children are forced to go without—rent, adequate beds, visits with faraway family. She feels angry that some people can enjoy something so decadent while she and others must consider how to use money for practicalities alone. Miss Moore presents these instances of economic inequality so the children might draw their own conclusions, and the stark contrast between Harlem and Fifth Avenue certainly strikes a chord with the kids, showcasing the various ways in which their basic needs aren’t being met while those of children the likes of which frequent stores like FAO Schwarz are being not just fulfilled, but exceeded.

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