The students’ interaction displayed in Fine gradually developed into more sophisticated and engaging discussion with time. For example, students were not empathetic to Lennie when George kills him in Of Mice and Men. They looked at the relationship between the two simplistically when Carlton (the teacher) asked them whether it was right to kill or not. The teacher, although confronted with a situation in which more than half of the classroom thought killing was right, challenged the students by telling them how they would feel in the place of Lennie. Another teacher, Dana, also encouraged students to see things from Lennie’s point of view (p. 168). By telling the students to take the perspective of the character in the story, I think it enabled the students to make the story or the feeling of the characters connect to their lives, and make them see that the relationship between Lennie and George is not simple as to say Lennie being killed is good or bad.

Through literature, the teachers were teaching the students that the society is not only about good and bad, white and black, or rich and poor. The classroom was a space where students looked into these ideas that seem simple and the teacher was the facilitator in this investigation. But in society, such space is not always provided. I thought the teachers described in Fine were trying to create different rituals in classroom. Through spending time in that kind of environment, students can internalize positive meanings. I could connect that with Dewey or Vygotsky that how they make connection, or how they experience through learning is ultimately making the students.