The Lesson

The Lesson Summary | Detailed Summary

Sylvia, the narrator, is a street-wise, wisecracking, black girl in New York City. On a hot summer's day, she and several of her friends wait by the mailbox for their new neighbor, Miss Moore. Miss Moore is not like the rest of the people in the neighborhood. In addition to being, as Sylvia says, "the only woman on the block with no first name" and "black as hell, 'cept for her feet, which were fish-white and spooky," Miss Moore is on a mission. She wants to educate the children about the difference between their world and the world that white people live in.

The children view Miss Moore as someone who interferes with their summer vacation plans, but their parents yield to this woman's plans because she has a college education and because she has voluntarily taken on the responsibility for educating the youngsters. Periodically, Miss Moore rounds up the neighborhood children for informal lessons, which usually involve math or language topics. On this day, however, the lesson is about money: who has it and what it can buy.

Sylvia strongly resents Miss Moore for making it difficult for her and her friends to do the things they would ordinarily do on a summer day. Sylvia would rather be bothering the West Indian kids by taking their money and hair ribbons. If Sylvia had her way, her friends would not be standing by the mailbox, dressed up in their best clothes in the afternoon heat, answering some college woman's questions about whether they know what money is. Sylvia thinks that Miss Moore is pretty stupid for all her education. When Sylvia mentions she would rather go and "terrorize" the West Indian kids, she can tell that Miss Moore will remember that remark for a future lesson on brotherhood.

As the group walks toward the subway, Miss Moore talks about the cost of things, how poor the children are, and how they live in the slums. She discusses the amount of money their parents make and the fact that wealth is not divided equally in the U.S. Sylvia is ready to argue with the woman about her perceptions of their poverty and living conditions, but she is surprised into silence when Miss Moore hails down two taxi cabs. Several of the children are put into the first cab to travel with Miss Moore. Then, the teacher gives Sylvia a five-dollar bill, tells her to tip the driver ten percent and puts the rest of the children into the second cab with Sylvia.

Sylvia, Sugar, Junebug and Flyboy occupy their time during the cab ride by hanging out the windows, yelling at people and putting lipstick on each other. Sylvia also tries to figure out how to spend the money Miss Moore gave her, but she doesn't get any help from her friends. They are fascinated by the taxi meter and occupy themselves by making farting sounds with their armpits. Sugar wonders how high the meter will read by the time they reach their destination. Nobody wants to hear about Sylvia's plan, which involves jumping out of the cab at the next stoplight and taking the money to the first barbecue place they can find.

When the taxi comes to its final stop, the meter reads 85 cents. Sylvia figures out the ten percent tip and then decides to keep it because she feels the driver doesn't need the money as much as she does. In retaliation, the driver tries to leave with Junebug's foot in the door. This prompts the group to insult the driver's mother until he drives off. Only then do they realize that they are standing in front of a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Everyone around them is dressed up in furs and stockings despite the summer heat. Sylvia thinks that white people are crazy.

Miss Moore meets them on the street and "using the voice she uses at the museum" tells them to look in the windows of the toy store before they go in. Sugar asks if they can steal once they go inside. Miss Moore pretends to have misunderstood her and leads the children around to look in the windows of the store. Each child points to things in the windows and yells, "That's mine!" and, "That was made for me!" All the children say they are going to buy one thing or another once they get inside.

Big Butt sees a microscope and says he is going to buy that. The other children make fun of him, saying he would not know what to do with such a thing. Miss Moore, however, takes his desire seriously and asks him what he would look at through the microscope. Big Butt doesn't know, but Miss Moore takes the opportunity to tell the children about the millions of bacteria and other living things that are invisible to the naked eye. Then, she asks the children what the microscope costs, and they all look through the window at the price tag, which says $300. Miss Moore asks how long it would take for Big Butt to save his allowance to buy it. Sylvia says it would take too long, and Sugar says he would have outgrown it before he saved up enough to buy it. Miss Moore tells her that a person never outgrows instruments of learning. She goes on to tell them how medical students use microscopes. Her lecture goes on for so long that the children get angry at Big Butt for bringing the subject up in the first place.

Rosie Giraffe looks at a big chunk of multicolored glass in the window and reports that it costs $480. Miss Moore tells them that the object is a paperweight made of semi-precious stones that have been fused together under pressure. Rosie Giraffe asks what a paperweight is. Flyboy says it is for weighing paper, but Miss Moore corrects him, saying that paperweights are used to keep the papers on a desk from becoming messy. Junebug tells Miss Moore that they do not keep papers on top of the desks at his school. She says maybe he could use a paperweight on his desk at home then. Sylvia thinks to herself that Miss Moore knows there are no desks at home because the woman snoops around their houses every time she gets the chance.

Big Butt and Fly Boy join Junebug in talking about how they don't have desks, but Mercedes says she has a box of stationery on her desk. She says her godmother bought her the stationery and the desk, and she keeps a picture of her cat on the desk. Rosie Giraffe taunts her with, "Who wants to know about your smelly-ass stationery?" Miss Moore tries to explain that it is important to have a place to work.

She is interrupted by Flyboy, who has spotted a large sailboat in the toy store window. The children read the description of the boat on its price tag. They discover it is made of fiberglass. It costs $1,195. They are all stunned by the price. For some reason, Sylvia feels herself getting angry about it. The children wait for Miss Moore to say something, but she keeps quiet, wanting them to talk.

Sylvia wonders who would pay all that money for a sailboat when she could go to the local store and get a sailboat set for a quarter and a tube of glue for a dime and some string for eight cents and make her own. It would cost her about 50 cents to make a sailboat. Mercedes asks her if it would take water, and Flyboy says he took a similar boat to the local pond once and lost it because the string broke. Another boy says he tried to sail one in Central Park, but it keeled over and sank. He had to ask his father for another dollar. Big Butt laughs at the story and remembers how the boy got the strap for asking.

Q.T. has been staring at the boat during the entire discussion. He really wants it, but he is too little, he thinks. Someone would just take it away from him. He asks Miss Moore if the boat is really for kids. Rosie Giraffe says it would be silly for parents to buy a toy like that, which would just get broken. Sylvia says that amount of money should last forever. Q.T. says rich people must shop in this store. Flyboy asks sarcastically what gave him the clue. Sylvia asks Miss Moore what a real boat costs, figuring that $1,000 would buy a yacht. Miss Moore asks her to do some research on the cost of a real boat and report back to the group, and Sylvia resents both herself, for getting involved in the discussion, and Miss Moore, for giving her an assignment instead of just telling her the answer.

Miss Moore says they should go inside, but she doesn't lead the way. She holds the door open so the children can enter. They hesitate and hang back, however. Even Sylvia, who is ordinarily so sure of herself, does not want to be the first one inside. She tells herself that there is nothing to be afraid of. It is just a toy store, and she has as much right as anyone to go inside. Still, she cannot make herself go through the door. She feels ashamed, but she does not know what she should be ashamed about. Sugar hangs back, too. Sylvia is surprised at herself. She knows she has never been shy about anything before.

Eventually, Mercedes pushes through the children crowding in the doorway and walks right into the store and down the aisle. The rest of the children follow her. Sylvia thinks to herself that it feels like the time she and Sugar broke into a Catholic church on a dare. They were supposed to run up to the altar, do a tap dance and mess around in the holy water, but once they got inside the church, it was so quiet and holy that they couldn't go through with their plan.

The toy store is the same. The children walk on tiptoes and barely touch any of the things on display. Sylvia watches Miss Moore, who is watching them like she is "waiting for a sign." They find the sailboat and look at the price tag again. Sugar runs her hand along the whole boat, and this angers Sylvia so much for some reason she wants to punch somebody in the mouth. She asks Miss Moore why she has brought them here. Miss Moore says that Sylvia sounds angry and asks her why. Sylvia is angry, but she will not give Miss Moore the satisfaction of knowing that she is right. Sylvia instead pretends to be bored with everything and says they should go.

Riding in the back of the subway car with Sugar, Sylvia thinks about a toy clown she saw in the store. The clown did somersaults and chin-ups on a bar when his leg was pulled. He cost $35. Sylvia imagines how her mother would react if she asked for $35 to buy this toy. She thinks about how that amount of money would buy new bunk beds for her brothers, pay for a trip so everyone in her family could visit their grandfather in the country or pay the rent and the cost of the piano rental, too. Sylvia wonders about the people who can pay $35 for a toy clown and $1,000 for toy sailboats. She wonders about the kind of work they do and how they live. She wonders why the people she knows don't seem to be "in on it."

Sylvia remembers how Miss Moore is always telling them that poor people need to become aware of economic injustice and demand their "share of the pie," although Sylvia and her friends don't understand what kind of pie she is talking about. At the same time, Sylvia thinks that Miss Moore isn't so smart after all. After all, Sylvia still has four dollars left over from the taxi money, and she isn't giving it back.

The group arrives back at the mailbox in their neighborhood where they started from just that morning, though it seems like a long time ago. The children prepare themselves for another boring lecture from Miss Moore, but she only asks them what they think about the toy store they visited. Rosie Giraffe says that white people are crazy, while Mercedes says she would like to go there again with her birthday money. The kids push her away so she has to stand alone by the mailbox. Flyboy says he is tired and wants a shower. Then Sugar surprises Sylvia by noting that all of them probably don't eat in a year what the toy sailboat costs.

Sylvia considers her friend's comment to be a betrayal because she and Sugar have previously agreed that Miss Moore should not be encouraged in any way. Sylvia steps on Sugar's foot to shut her up, but it is too late. Miss Moore uses the comment as an opening to ask the children what kind of society lets some people spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven in their neighborhood. Sugar says she thinks that maybe this society isn't much of a democracy. She says equal pursuit of happiness should mean an equal chance at getting money too. Miss Moore is excited that Sugar has made this connection. Sylvia, feeling even more strongly that Sugar has betrayed her, challenges her by standing on her foot again. Sugar takes the cue and stops talking.

Miss Moore is disappointed in Sylvia for this action. She asks if anyone else has learned anything from the day, and she looks straight at Sylvia. Sylvia just walks away, and when Sugar catches up with her, Sylvia doesn't welcome her. Sugar mentions the four dollars they have and suggests they go buy some cake and potato chips and ice cream sodas.

The girls run down the block toward the stores. Sugar gets ahead of Sylvia, but Sylvia doesn't mind. She has decided to go somewhere else, alone, to think about what happened during the trip to F.A.O. Schwartz. She thinks to herself that, while Sugar can run fast and may even pass her this time, nobody is going to beat Sylvia at anything.