Afterword

This article offers reflections on the startling and deeply moving events during Mrs. Paley’s time with Raya Herman and her class of fifth-graders. The article tracks the movement of the children’s thinking about the power and privilege of being popular to a new awareness of what it means to honor or hurt another and to sense when we are compromising our integrity. The pathway to change and growth for the children and teachers is through curiosity and listening, not punishments, admonishments, or insistence on practicing moralities such as that stated in the Golden Rule. The features of Mrs. Paley’s questions guiding the discussion of tender and often disturbing feelings are highlighted to make visible what teachers can learn to do in furthering such egalitarian problem solving in our own classrooms while cultivating the kinds of inclusive, fair thinking we seek in a democratic society.