ABSTRACT
It is 10:00 A.M. on a surprisingly pleasant January day. A bank of windows along one
wall lets in the sunshine; when several children complain that the room is too warm,
Dehea Smith opens a window and a breeze moves through the room. The twenty-one
children in Dehea’s third-grade classroom are working at a variety of tasks. One group of
three works with a set of geography materials, two children work at the computer, typing
in their newsletter entry about the stage design they are working on for the school TV
news program. Others work on a “Museum of the World” display that will organize some
of the artifacts that the class has collected over the first semester of the year. Others are
completing their “Morning Goals”—usually work in math or literature. The classroom is
small and crowded. Children sit in groups of three, either at desks turned to face each
other or at two round tables in the middle of the room. These are new groups, and the
children have hung signs above each set of desks or table with their group name on it:
Radical Red Rovers, Chkemy, Brown-eyed Tigers, and so forth. Earlier in the year,
students had trouble working cooperatively. Over the first semester, Dehea assigned
partners, occasionally moving into larger groups for some tasks. They have been working
in groups of three since the new semester began. As the children finish up their work,
Dehea passes out booklets entitled “Government is for Kids, Too!”
