In Toni Bambara's short story "The Lesson", she relates about a girl, Sylvia, who rebels against her teacher, Miss Moore, by refusing to learn or to listen to what she has to say. Miss Moore is a well-educated woman, who has realized things within society that others of her social group have not realized yet; therefore, she feels the need to transmit that anxiety to her pupils, and instill a challenge within them. By rebelling against her teacher, Sylvia demonstrates her supposed self-sufficiency and her ignorance, since she believes she knows everything when she says, "But ain't nobody gonna beat me at nuthin" (Bambara 223). Nevertheless, after Miss Moore's lesson Sylvia is confused and she knows deep inside that her teacher was right, although she never admits it, because of her pride. Rebelliousness is a path to nowhere, in the end it is going to agree with the opposition's point of view, just as Sylvia realized that Miss Moore's ideas were somewhat true.
             Miss Moore's education has shown her the real situation within society beyond the boundaries established by her social group. The narrator, Sylvia, explains Miss Moore's point of view toward education: "She'd been to college and said it was only right that she should take responsibility for the young one's education, and she not even related by marriage or blood" (219). Noticeably, Miss Moore knows very well that the environment that surrounds these children is not challenging enough; consequently, she feels that urge and responsibility to transmit what she has learned and seen throughout her life.
             During the whole day of the lesson, Miss Moore shows several attempts to catch the kids' attention to what she wanted them to learn about. For instance, although she is aware of the economic status of these kids, what they have and what they do not; she asks them, "Don't you have a ca...