Responding to literature through the writing process

¶ … Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara tells the story of a college-educated woman who moves to the African-American neighborhood of the unnamed story-teller, her friend Sugar, and her friends and cousins. To the children it seems that Miss Moore puts on air, speaking "proper" English, always dressed as if she were going to church, and taking the children on educational field trips. The children resent it; school is out, and they want to spend the summer going to the movies or to the pool.

While Miss Moore organizes all kinds of outings for the children, Miss Moore herself is the lesson. She is the concrete example to the children that they can do well in school, they can go to college, and, by inference, that they can get a good-paying job. Miss Moore has enough money to not only pay her rent and provide for her necessities but to share experiences with a large group of children. She hands the speaker a five-dollar bill to pay for the second taxi as they all ride to mid-town Manhattan to visit FAO Schwartz, the toy store. At the end of the story the teller has pocketed the more than four dollars in change, demonstrating that Miss Moore has discretionary money.

Miss Moore does not act as a lesson for the children by lecturing them about going to school, working hard, going to college and getting a good job, although she does lecture them. She demonstrates the possibilities by her existence, and she makes sure the lesson sticks by taking them on trips repeatedly.

While Miss Moore is the lesson, she provides sub-lessons. On this particular day, the lesson is on social economics. She takes the children to an exclusive toy store, where they see $1,200 versions of their fifty-cent sail boats. They look at the prices of the other toys and comment that that "must be rich people shop here," and "White folk crazy." As the children look at the toys they realize that they would never be able to save their meager allowances enough to buy even the most inexpensive toys in the store. It isn't enough for Miss Moore to show the children that she has a decent job and enough money to hire two taxis. The children discover, on this trip, that some people have a great deal of money, and that money is not distributed evenly among all people.

The children do everything they can to avoid connecting with Miss Moore. The story-teller dismisses Miss Moore as anyone of importance by saying that it's her Aunt Gretchen who keeps letting Miss Moore organize these trips, and that Aunt Gretchen goes along with anything anyone says. The speaker has a strong personality and does not respect people who seem to roll over easily. At the beginning of the story, the speaker has not learned what Miss Moore has hoped she will learn from her: the speaker describes Miss Moore as "this nappy-head ***** and her goddam college degree." Not a good start for Miss Moore today.

However, little by little the children note that the store is packed with things that they not only can't afford but that are priced extremely high compared to anything they purchase. At first, Miss Moore seems to defend the price of these items: they find a $480 paperweight, and MIss Moore talks about the need for keeping one's desk organized. The children know that Miss Moore knows they don't have desks, or stationary, or paperweights, so it seems silly to the children. Miss Moore is trying to get them to consider what it would take to buy the paperweight, and what kind of person would spend $480 on one.