What would your child do if suddenly his or her teacher told him the American flag was unimportant? What would a room full of impressionable young children do if taught that it was okay, and in fact good idea, to spy on their parents? These questions and more are asked in "The Children's Story" by James Clavell, a story we will read together on Thursday. But it raises an even more frightening question: If we don't teach our children morals, who will? Do we trust teachers with this job? Hopefully we do, but this book scares us just a little into thinking about how we should, on many levels, take the responsibility to educate our children ourselves. This book reminds us that we have a responsibilty and a duty to teach our children values, values that can then be reinforced in the classroom.

Your assignment is to think about how simply the teacher in "The Children's Story" is able to manipulate the beliefs of the students. Why is she so effective? What kind of psychology does the teacher use in the fable? And finally, do you find it frightening?