The Lesson Summary

Emily Burleson

Mr. Neuberger

Eng. 101-109

04 September 2012

Summary
“The Lesson”

Nine children; Sylvia, Sugar, Junior, Fly Boy, Fat Butt (Ronald), Mercedes, Rosie Giraffe, Q.T, and June bug all met at the mailbox to go with Miss Moore to “travel”. The narrator of the story Sylvia does not like Miss Moore at all and the reader sees this through the whole short story. Sylvia is upset with her because she thinks she is a know it all and took her away from the nice summer day that she could be swimming. Even so before they go Miss Moore asks the children about money. Of course Sylvia thinks it is a stupid question because she thinks she knows. The children go on a cab ride with Miss Moore up town. Miss Moore asks Sylvia to count change to give to the cab driver and gives her 5 dollars for the trip. The trip didn’t cost that much so Sylvia kept the rest of the money. Upon arrival the children find they are going to a toy store. The children line the windows of the store to see what it has in it. As they go in and look at all the toys and Sylvia sees a clown that does summersaults and chin ups that cost 35 dollars. After seeing the clown she starts to think of what 35 dollars can buy for her family and thinks it’s silly to spend that much money on toys. As they walk through the toy store the children see a boat that costs over a thousand dollars. Sugar, getting the point of the trip, says that it’s silly that people can spend that much money on a toy boat when that much money would feed a family of 6 or 7 for a year. Sylvia gets upset with Sugar for voicing her opinion to Miss Moore and for not listening to Sylvia when she tried to step on her foot to get her to be quiet. When the children get back from their trip with Miss Moore, Sylvia decides she is going to skip out on eating with Sugar and took off by herself in a different direction to think about the day.