The lesson
The lesson of “the lesson” was to teach a group of children the true worth of money. We learn of miss Moore who has a college degree. We read of how she was always planning things for kids to do. She burdened herself by the responsibility of educating young people though they were strangers to her. Sylvia gets to learn of the social divide in the wealth gap when she remembers a clown doll that summersaults and does chin-ups costing upwards of 35 dollars. This toy was relatively cheap in the store, but she still could not see her parents buying it, citing the expense.
F.A.O Schwarz refers to the toy store. Miss Moore took the kids to look at toys. Once they got there, miss Moore decided not to lead them in, and everyone else finds it baffling as to why they cannot muster the courage to enter the store despite it being open to the public. Sylvia feels ashamed in the F.A.O Schwarz store because all of a sudden, she thinks that she cannot afford to purchase any of the toys despite almost cutting short Miss Moore when she suggested that they were all poor and lived in slums. She felt that she wasn’t part of the poor and thus wasn’t part of the conversation Miss Moore was discussing. This behavior reveals that Sylvia is a pretentious person who does not see things for what they are. She pretends not to be poor until miss Moore takes them to a toy store where they can’t afford any toys.
Miss more is described as an educated African American who had just moved into an impoverished neighborhood and was always smartly dressed and wore no makeup. From the text, people seemed not to be well educated in the area, and Miss Moore decided to teach the young ones a few things that would get them thinking. In the story, her college education points out that despite being African American, she appears to be the only college-educated person in the area, and grownups seemed to respect her for that.
The last sentence shows that Sylvia develops a competitive character and will do her utmost best to emerge as the winner in all aspects of life. She was going home to think about the day’s events and probably use what she learned to her future advantage.