The Lesson

Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson shows how change often does not occur without crisis.  A death of an old mindset comes with a grieving process before the resurrection of a new point of view occurs.  The story begins with Sylvia, a poor kid, laughing at and hating Miss Moore.  Sylvia and Sugar notice Miss Moore is different and that alone would be enough to have a combative attitude. Miss Moore makes it her business to try and elevate the awareness of the social construct that Sylvia, her cousin Sugar and the other kids are a part of.  Sylvia is upset because she'd rather be at the pool.  She is "really hating this nappy-head bitch and her goddamn college degree."  Miss Moore takes the kids on an outing to the expensive FAO Schwartz toy store.  Outside the window, Sylvia sees the price tag of an item and states "Unbelievable."  Her awareness continues and is evident in the way she is reluctant to go in the store and for some reason unbeknownst to her she feels "shame."  The other kids feel out of place too.  They are "all walking on tiptoe and hardly touching the games and the puzzles and things."  At the end of the same paragraph Sylvia is having an internal conflict and wants to "punch somebody in the mouth."  Up to this point she has never addressed Miss Moore directly but finally asks her "Whatcha bring us here for, Miss Moore?"  She then comes to a realization of how absurd it would be to ask her mother for a toy from this store.  Towards the end of the story Sylvia’s change is becoming clear to her when she states "something weird is going on, I can feel it in my chest."  Sylvia had to go somewhere alone and process all she experienced.

The lesson of social equality was more "caught than taught."  People can only live up to and perform to the level of knowledge they are exposed to.  Furthermore, I think it's never too late (in my case) or too early to start thinking about what legacy we will leave behind.